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Why you mad tho? My hidden “system” to determine which players are stars? lol
I haven’t really defined an arbitrary set of parameters to objectively determine which NBA players are, or are not, “stars.”
As far as a comparison between Billups and Parker, it’s difficult to compare their respective careers overall. Counting this season, Billups has played 16 seasons and Parker has played 12. Billups spent his first 6 seasons with 5 different teams. During that time he missed 121 games due to injury. Tony is a very different story.
If you want to compare the two, you’ll have to choose a set of years for each player that can be considered their “prime” years. I think this is really the only way it’s fair for Billups. For Tony, I picked ’03-’04 through the current season ’12-’13. For Chauncey, I just picked the years when he started playing significant minutes (after his injuries) to a time just a couple years ago when he started to noticeably drop off -- ‘01-’02 through ’10-’11.
The numbers are fairly similar during their “prime” years. Tony scored more points, but he also shot the ball more. Billups shot a much lower FG%, but he also made more 3-pointers so that bumped up his PPG average. Tony has slightly more assists, but he also has slightly more turnovers. Overall, I tried to balance the stats out as much as possible so the two were on a level playing field. It doesn’t look like much, but Billups’ MPG being higher than Tony’s resulted in Tony being favored in virtually all categories once you start comparing Per 36 Min stats. And if you really want to compare “careers” and not just their best years, you can toss in the first 4 years of Chauncey’s career where in 215 games he averaged 27 MPG, 10.9 PPG, shot 39% from the field and had 3.7 Assists per game. You end up with one guy (Parker) who has shot 50% for his career, and another guy (Billups) who has shot closer to 40% for his career.
If we’re going to compare careers, in 16 years Billups hasn’t put together a better career than Tony has during his 12 years. You can compare the stats or you can compare career accomplishments. Both players are 5x NBA All-Stars. Both players have won NBA Finals MVP. Billups has 1 ring - Tony has 3. You could compare the players defensively, but I’ve always thought Billups was an overrated defender, while Tony’s defense has always been underrated. Whatever your opinion, I’m not sure how you could prove or disprove either point.
If nothing else, Tony has been a dependable model of consistency throughout his career. Tony started contributing immediately as a 19 year old straight from France. It wasn’t until Billups was 25 years old that he showed enough ability for a team to want to hold on to him. Parker didn’t have a 5 year span being a chucker bouncing from team to team. And Parker has never been a player who will straight up shoot you out of playoff games. During his “prime” it wasn’t all that surprising to see Billups go full JR Smith with his chucking. Parker still has a lot left in his tank, and if he continues his great play for another 3-4 years, I don’t see how they’ll be any comparison between the two, especially when you take into account each player’s entire body of work, including rings.
Yeah, I’d say so. And considering how much he’s bounced around the League, I think a few GM’s agree.
self-appointing yourself as the arbiter of "mainstream thinking and majority perception"
@ this thread.
