Billups' Bucks

Chauncey Billups signs with Detroit for five years and sixty million dollars, with the fifth year as a team option. John Hollinger noted month ago that Billups has the characteristics of a point guard who ages well -- he's big, he's an excellent shooter, and he was something of a late-bloomer -- so the is likely to give Detroit good value. And, if he does wind up falling off the cliff three or four years from now, the team option lets them dump him. All very convenient. Still, it's hard to avoid the sense that the Pistons' window may have closed unless Joe Dumars can pull something more dramatic than resigning his existing star.

Photo by Flickr user Farlane used under a Creative Commons license