Former Clippers guard Chauncey Billups is reuniting with the Detroit Pistons, who announced Thursday that they have agreed to a two-year, $5-million contract with the 36-year-old point guard who led them to their last NBA championship in 2004.
Billups' deal pays $2.5 million per year, with only the first year guaranteed. He rejoins one of the seven teams he has played for in a 16-year NBA career. He spent the last two seasons with the Clippers, for whom he played only 42 games, primarily because of an Achilles' tendon injury suffered in February 2012.
A five-time All-Star, Billups was MVP of the 2004 NBA Finals, when Detroit upset the Lakers in five games. He played for the Pistons from 2002 until they traded him to Denver on Nov. 3, 2008, when the franchise decided its championship window had closed. The Pistons are 148-244 since making that unpopular move and have missed the playoffs the last four years, their longest drought since a six-year dry spell from 1978 through 1983.
Billups has averaged 15.4 points — making 42 percent of his three-point attempts — and 5.5 assists during his career. In his second go-round with the Pistons, the team sees him as a pass-first point guard who can make three-point shots. He'll also be expected to mentor 21-year-old Brandon Knight and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, the No. 8 overall pick in the draft, in the backcourt and off the court.
