Rajon Rondo should bake a nice cake with the words "thank you for trading Chauncey Billups" written in icing on the top and send it to Detroit Pistons GM Joe Dumars. It wouldn't hurt if all of the Celtics helped (even Scalabrine), but Rondo in particular should take the lead on this one. Stop scratching your heads and looking confused and don't ask why, you should know very well by now that some rambling, tangential diatribe of an explanation is forthcoming...
Does anyone remember the head to head match ups between the Celtics and the Pistons last season? I certainly do, and do you know what the number one issue always was for the Boston Celtics against the Pistons? It was the point guard match up, which at the time was the 6'3" 202 pound Chauncey Billups against the 6'1" 170 pound Rajon Rondo. Does anyone remember the first Celtics home loss from last season, because I sure do (I was a history major, you know). To refresh your memory, Chauncey Billups dropped 28 points and 8 assists on the Celtics that night, including two free throws that decided the game in the final second and propelled Detroit to an 87-85 win. Although Rajon Rondo did not foul Billups on the decisive play (it was, of course, Tony Allen), Rondo was over matched for the entire game in what was to be a foreshadowing of future match ups with the big point guard.
Although the Celtics went on to dominate the Pistons for the rest of the season and the playoffs en route to their record 17th title, Billups was consistentyl the Pistons best player and by far their most favorable match up against the Celtics in almost every single one of those games. Not only did Billups give Rondo fits with his offensive production, he was able to lock Rondo up on defense and limit the young speedster's production on the other side of the ball. Put simply, Chauncey Billups was the Detroit Pistons' biggest advantage over the Boston Celtics, their biggest Eastern Conference rival.
Knowing this, and knowing that as constituted the Celtics and Pistons were likely to meet again deep into this year's playoffs, Joe Dumars traded Chauncey Billups to Denver for Allen Iverson. It's a real head scratcher, I know, especially when you consider the newly reformatted point guard match up, which now features Allen Iverson against the aforementioned Rajon Rondo. But Allen Iverson is a hall of fame player and one of the NBA's best talents of the post Michael Jordan era, so why would the Celtics (and your's truly) be thanking Joe Dumars for making this move?
it's true, Allen Iverson is a prolific scorer who can fill up a stat sheet with the best of them, but the key to this match up lies in the tale of the tape. Like I said earlier, Billups stands 6'3" and weighs in at a muscular 200+ pounds and used his size last season to push Rondo around and cause all kinds of trouble with Boston's defensive schemes. if you'll also remember, the fear of BIllups running wild over Rondo paralyzed the Celtics to such a great extent that they made a panic move to pick up Sam "the human gun" (or as Tyler prefers to call him "the crystal skull") Cassell in order to answer Detroit's size and physical play from the point guard spot. Iverson, on the other hand, is smaller than Rondo. And although he plays bigger than he is, he can't post Rondo up on offense or use his muscle to keep Rondo from getting to his spots on defense. Now, instead of exploiting Rondo's weaknesses, Joe Dumars and the Pistons are playing right into the Celtics' hands.
Allen Iverson's game relies on being able to out-quick his opponent to spots on the floor and operates under the premise that nobody can prevent him from doing so, and throughout most of his career, that's been more than true (hence, he regularly shreds 95% of the NBA). But Rajon Rondo is as quick as they come, and his long arms and defensive intensity make him one of the toughest people to get around in the Association. Rondo also has an established track record of shutting down even the very best quick point guards of the NBA (Chris Paul and Tony Parker, just to name a few). At this point, instead of pitting strength against weakness, the Pistons are now attacking the strongest part of Rondo's game with Allen Iverson. Don't get me wrong, Iverson is still extremely quick and is still able to get his points against anybody, but Iverson is slightly slower than he used to be, and at this point in his career I don't believe that he can consistently beat Rondo at his own game.
And then, there's the other side of the ball, which many would claim to be unfamiliar territory for AI. Chauncey Billups was no stranger to defense, and in addition to using his size and strength to gain an advantage on offense against the slimmer Rondo, BIllups was able to keep Rondo out of the paint and limit his effectiveness on offense. Billups had the ability to make Rondo a jump-shooter, severely limiting Rondo's consistency and effectiveness. It was evident last year, and in case anyone needed a reminder, I would once again refer you to last week's debacle against Denver where Chauncey Billups helped to limit Rondo to two points on 1-8 shooting while scoring 18 for Denver and dishing out 7 assists in a convincing victory in Boston (sounds familiar, doesn't it?).
As for Iverson, his inability to keep Rondo away from the basket and out of the paint cost Detroit dearly in their humiliating loss last Thursday. Rondo scorched Iverson and the Pistons on Thursday for a game high 18 points on 7-11 from the floor and dished out 8 assists in an 18-point blowout that wasn't even as close as the final score made it seem (and the Celtics won by 18 points!!!!). There was a full quarter of garbage time for the Celtics last Thursday, and every single member of the team scored at least one point and grabbed at least one rebound. The Celtics' victory was resounding and complete, and the point guard match up appropriately told the story of the game.
Allen Iverson scored 16 points to lead the Pistons, but shot 5-13 and had as many turnovers (4) as assists. And while Rondo was making plays for everybody on the roster and creating movement and open shots for the Celtics offense, Iverson as always was inspiring a lot of standing around and isolation that led to lots of contested shots and misses for the Detroit Pistons.
Now, if the idea was for Joe Dumars to shake things up in the PIstons locker room and perhaps inspire them to break out of the malaise that's seemed to cause them to collapse in the Eastern Conference Finals for the past three seasons, then why trade away not only your best player but your biggest advantage over your number one rival? Having no life, I've watched a lot of basketball over the past 6 or 7 years, and I'll tell you this: Chauncey BIllups was not responsible for LeBron James going off in 2007, or for Shaq and D-Wade lighting the Pistons up in 2006. And please check the box scores on this, Billups certainly was not the problem last year in the Conference Finals against Boston. If anything, Billups was the PIstons' best player and by far was their biggest threat to the Celtics. He was a Finals MVP in 2004 for crying out loud!
I suppose I shouldn't be so angry, because Joe Dumars has practically paved the way for the Celtics to steamroll the PIstons once again in May. Sure, the Pistons will get better with time once Iverson and his teammates get used to playing with each other, but even so, they're not beating the Celtics in a seven game series. They shipped out their only advantage over Boston and replaced him with somebody who cannot exploit one of the Celtics' only weaknesses. I've got to agree with Simmons here, whether it's this trade, the drafting of Darko Milicic, signing Kwame Brown or whatever else, he's made as many boneheaded moves as brilliant ones, and unlike the gamble for Rasheed Wallace (who filled a giant gaping hole at power forward in 2004 created by the drafting of Milicic over Chris Bosh), this gamble created a new hole in Detroit's game instead of plugging one up.
