No. Camby is overrated. He's a great rebounder yes, but he cant play man defense whatsoever. He only looks for weakside blocks. Nene is a better man defender. And if Billups made Nene, explain to me why Nene had great games when Iverson was there, this year?
"this stuff should be decided on the court" no this stuff should be decided over the course of a season. we're 1/3 of the way through and it's way to early to be talking about MVP's. seriously kingspeed, for your own well being, don't get all wrapped into this stuff. it's a long season.
He had two good games and two bad games, but that's a really small sample size, so I'm not going to dwell any further. Nene has not played this good in his career until now. Why? It's Billups imo. You're also selling Camby short. No man to man whatsoever? This is simply not true. He's not the best man to man defender, but he's certainly not as bad as you make him out to be. Weak side blocks only? Why do people always say that? Most of his blocks do come from the weak side, and part of that is because it's easier to block shots from the weakside. He's a capable shot blocker anywhere. Plus, if (like you said) he can get ~4 weakside blocks per game, doesn't that still help the team tremendously?
No. I didn't say that. I said I wouldn't be surprised if they made it to the finals. The fact of the matter is, the Western crown is the Lakers' to lose. And I'm sorry, I like the Blazers, they're one of my favorite teams and I can't say that about the Nuggets, but they have no chance of beating the Lakers in a 7 game series at this point. I think the Nuggets have a shot because of their veteran leadership (Billups). As good as Roy is and as good as he will be, and as great as the stats he is putting up are, he's not on the level with Billups yet when it comes to leadership and making his teammates better, and sustaining that leadership and improvement amongst his teammates in the playoffs when the going gets tough. You think the Pistons with AI would come back being down 2-1 to the Sixers in the 1st round? Or come back from being down 3-1 against T-Mac and the Magic? Or beat the mighty Lakers in the Finals? No. That's Chauncey Billups. As good as Roy is, he's not the Western MVP and he's not on the same level as Billups, yet. And I am not a Billups fan. I have a newfound respect for him though since this trade.
I think that Billups is definitely overrated by many. Nene averaged 15 ppg, 8.75 rpg and 2 blocks per game in the four games before Billups arrived... I think it's hard to argue that he's playing well because of Chauncey. Billups is a good player, but Denver was a good team before he got there and they're still just a good team after he's there. I don't follow Stein's logic in giving the "award" to neither the best players (since Kobe and Paul are in the conference) nor the player that was most important to his team (since Duncan single-handedly kept the Spurs afloat). Ed O.
Nene is finally healthy. He has proven in the past when he is healthy he is a good player. He has played very similar to this without Billups (when healthy), so I don't agree there. and your missing the point about Camby, the guy looks for weakside blocks and concentrates most of his defensive efforts in doing so. He is a horrible man to man defender. A lot of people thought the Nuggets defense would be destroyed by Camby leaving, is that the case? Not even close.
The fact of the matter is Roy hasn't proven anything yet. Just because a player has leadership qualities during the regular season, doesn't mean it translates to leadership when it counts -- in the playoffs. And that's what Billups brings to the table. Yes, Nene was putting up great numbers prior to his arrival, but great leaders (the types of players that make teams better) positively benefits his teammates because of intangibles which aren't on stat sheets. When Jason Kidd took over Jersey in '01, did any of his supporting cast have drastically improved stats? No. But the Nets were able to work together collectively, and a roster that won 26 games the years before doubled their amount of wins and made it all the way to the finals. That's what Billups has been doing so far in Denver. He has taken the tremendous talent that was going to waste with AI and brought leadership and wins to Denver at a time when the playoffs might have been out of reach for them without Camby in the packed West. Which I think it was.
I agree with what you said, essentially. I'll go a step further and say Denver is a better team now then they were. Not because Billups is a great leader who is making everyone else better--because he's simply a better player than Allen Iverson, and Denver swapped out a redundant player (Iverson replicated benefits JR Smith could provide and that Carmelo Anthony does provide, namely scoring) and received something they did not have, a proper point guard. Better player + need filled without opening a new hole = significantly better team No leadership or "making Nene better" necessary to explain Denver being better.
Actually, what happened is that all actually got healthy and PLAYED. Kenyon Martin got healthy. Kittles got healthy. Van Horn got healthy. AND they added Collins and Jefferson from the draft that year. Kidd walked into a Nets team that was about to improve anyway and then everyone said it was because of him. Yes, Kidd played great, but that team's large improvement wasn't solely because of him. And that is why Duncan won MVP and not Kidd.
Martin played 5 additional games the year Kidd came. His numbers showed no drastic change. In fact, his rebounding went down by 2. KVH missed about 30 and Kittles missed 20. You really think those two pieces would have had them win anything more than 5 games? Neither of them could create their own shots, so they relied on players to get them the ball in their opportune positions. Kidd did that, Marbury did not. It was ridiculos that Duncan got the MVP over Kidd when made the team an elite Eastern conference force when everybody laughed when Kidd said he thought Nets could have a .500 record and/or be better than the Knicks.
This is exactly right. Kidd was a better player than Marbury, but not by all that much. The huge difference came from health, the development of Martin and the addition of Jefferson.
Apples and oranges. I'd give Chauncy the edge on defense and getting his teammates involved, Brandon the edge on being an unstoppable scorer.
I don't think Billups is overrated. All I know is that the Nuggets weren't a very good team before he got there, after he got there they started winning. Coincidence? Maybe. I don't think so though. Billups on Pistons - Pistons winning. Iverson on Nuggets - Nuggets losing. Billups on Nuggets - Nuggets winning. Iverson on Pistons - Pistons losing. Seems like a pattern.
^^Bish you have a point, but at the same time look at Billups before the Pistons and Iverson before the Nuggets. It's pretty obvious who was a better player and more of a winner. A lot of people didn't even know who Billups was when he was playing in Denver (the first time), Minny, etc.
Are you talking about this year? Iverson was on the team for three games. The team went 1-2, with losses at Utah (by 4 points) and against the Lakers (by 7 points). Do you really think that's a meaningful part of a pattern? Ed O.
