Chauncey Billups wants to continue playing
When the Detroit Pistons decided to decline the option on veteran guard Chauncey Billups’ contract, it looked like his career may be coming to an end.
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Billups, however, still wants to play.
“As far as me playing, I feel really good right now for the first time ina long time – in two or three years,” Billups said via Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders. “I know that in the right situation, I can really help a team win. But it would take the right situation. I’m not going to play just to play. I have nothing left to prove and I’ve accomplished everything I wanted to accomplish playing basketball, so it would take the right situation for me to play.
“Of course, winning [is the biggest factor]. I’ve always considered myself to be a winner. I want to play for something; I don’t just want to play, I want to play to win. That’s the number one criteria – a team that has championship aspirations. And not just a team that’s saying it, but a team that could possibly do it. As far as my role on the team, I’m going to be 38 years old, so I’m not going to say I need to be a starter or I need to play this amount of minutes or anything. Those are things you kind of carve your way through as camp and the season go on. We would work our way through that and I certainly have no demands on that. I just know that with my health and what I can do, I’ll be able to carve my niche and help, that’s for sure.”
Billups was selected by the Boston Celtics with the third-overall pick in the first round of the 1997 NBA Draft but spent just one season there. In addition to the Celtics and Pistons has also played for the Toronto Raptors, Denver Nuggets, Orlando Magic (although he didn’t actually appear in any games), Minnesota Timberwolves, New York Knicks and Los Angeles Clippers.
Last season, Billups averaged 3.8 points, 2.2 assists and 1.5 rebounds in 16.3 minutes per while appearing in just 19 games. In his career, he has averaged 15.2 points, 5.4 assists, 2.9 rebounds and 1.0 steals per game.