Chauncey Billups and Raymond Felton - Performance Comparison

The huge trade between the Knicks, Nuggets and Timberwolves that sent Carmelo Anthony to New York is now official.  While clearly the big headline is Carmelo getting the outcome he always wanted and the question of whether he can help make the Knicks a championship contender, one of the more interesting angles to me is the swap of Chauncey Billups and Raymond Felton.

Let's compare the performance of Billups and Felton so far this season and look at what Billups will bring to the Knicks that Felton did not.

. Statistic Chauncey Billups Raymond Felton . MPG 32.3 38.4 . PER 18.8 17.34 . EWA 6.4 6.5 . True S% 63.4 52.4 . 3FG% 44.1 32.8 . Ast/36 5.9 8.5 . Tur/36 2.8 3.1 . ORtg 120 108 . DRtg 112 111 . Opp PER 17.6 17.6 . On Ct/48 3.6 -0.2 . Off Ct/48 2.3 5

When you look at the statistics above you see that there has not been a large gap between the production levels of Billups and Felton.  Billups has a nice lead in PER at 18.8 to Felton's 17.34, but because of the advantage Felton has in minutes played his Estimated Wins Added of 6.5 beats out Billups by a whisker.

Billups has a huge edge in offensive efficiency with an Offensive Rating of 120 points per 100 possessions compared to Felton's 108.  The on court and off court differential numbers are also to Billups' advantage.

But the biggest thing Billups brings to the Knicks that Felton had trouble delivering is outside shooting.  Billups' True Shooting Percentage is 63.4 and he's knocking down 44.1% of his shots from behind the arc.  Felton has struggled from distance, making only 32.8% of his three-pointers.  He started out good, hitting right around 36% on threes in the first month of the season, but perhaps the high number of minutes he's been playing wore him down.

From a statistical standpoint Billups brings an outside shooting element to the point guard position that wasn't there when Felton was manning the helm  for the Knicks.  But, New York may very well have lost some ability in the playmaking department.  Ultimately I think Billups is a nice upgrade at the point because of his shooting, leadership and experience.  Let's not forget, "Mr. Big Shot" is an NBA Finals MVP.