NBA Top 50: Chauncey Billups (No. 15)

FanHouse's Tom Ziller argues his ranking of the top 50 players in the NBA.

Ask nine out of 10 basketball fans for an image of Chauncey Billups, and they'll drop a Mr. Big Shot moment. Fair enough. Billups has hit his share of humongous buckets. But the vision of Billups' career -- his excellent, excellent career -- might instead be seen as the most controlling, efficient, mistake-free point guard of our era. If Steve Nash is the flashy maestro and Jason Kidd is the crafty roughneck, Billups exist as a dominant prison guard, forcing his opponents to the ground and his teammates into position to win.

I love Nash, and you might notice his number hasn't been called yet on this list. But Nash hands off three turnovers a game to the opposition for all his clever passes and drives. Billups slashes to the rim nearly as much (he draws 6 FTAs/game) and gives up only two turnovers a night. How?

Billups has great size for a point guard. When we say that, we usually mean the fellow's tall -- Shaun Livingston at 6'7, for instance. But a better use of size at the position is strength, provided the protagonist has matching quickness. (Billups does.) The strength doesn't just help in posting up a la Gary Payton. Its most effective use is in driving the lane, keeping control of the body and ball as defenders attack. Not every foul gets called in the NBA, obviously. With today's rules, you could probably call contact on every guard penetration play. Regular slashers have to be able to succeed when the whistle stays silent. That means keeping a handle when you get bumped or hacked, and it means finishing at the rim with the mammoths of the paint hanging over you.

As we've established, few slashers keep their handle as tidy as Billups. Chauncey had a strong 56.6% shooting percentage around the basket. His strength allows him to succeed at the rim. But, of course, as we mentioned in the first sentence: he can hit the bomb. He takes a ton of threes (he's top 25 all-time in total makes and attempts) and he's at 38.5% for his career, good for #55 all-time. It's the perfect diversified offense for a guard: get lots of free throws, take most of your two-pointers around the rim, make a lot of threes. You avoid lower-percentage, lower-reward long twos which kill most teams while getting efficient production. (Speaking of efficient: Billups' True Shooting percentage has been 59% or higher in each of the past four seasons ... that's 50 points higher than that of the average NBA player.)

And of course, he's a point guard on one of the winningest teams of the decade. His assist numbers won't lead the league, but adjust for minutes and pace and he's up there with the finest distributors. His steal numbers are decent, but that's an insult to his excellent overall defensive skills. His strength's an asset here, too: he can corral opposing speedsters into the trap Rasheed Wallace and Tayshaun Prince create in the paint and cause problems for impending screen-rolls.

Billups' minutes seem to be declining as Detroit looks for a way to fix its recent postseason failures. New coach Michael Curry adores Rodney Stuckey (a fine position to take), so we might see even more playing time erosion for Billups. But rest easy that when Billups hits the floor, he will dominate.