Boston Celtics: 3 drafted players who had great careers elsewhere

Chauncey Billups, PG (Drafted 3rd overall in 1997)

Similar to the player listed on the previous slide, the Boston Celtics gave up on Chauncey Billups at about the halfway point of his rookie season, where he averaged 11.1 points, 4.3 assists and 1.5 steals per game on 34 percent shooting from deep in 51 games.

Unlike Joe Johnson, however, Billups managed to get over the hump and reach the status that all players in the league aspire to attain: NBA Champion.

Things weren’t easy for the Colorado product during the early stages of his professional career. Playing for four franchises in as many years to start his NBA tenure, the point guard’s career didn’t start out as luxurious as many would hope from a third overall selection.

Things all changed, however, once he landed with the Detroit Pistons in the summer of 2002.

During his first season in Motor City, Billups managed to guide the franchise to the number one seed in the Eastern Conference with a record of 50-32. Bestowed the everlasting nickname “Mr. Big Shot” thanks to two clutch buckets that led to victories for the team during the regular season, he wound up upping his game to even greater heights in the postseason, dropping 30+ and 40+ points on multiple occasions and guided the team to it’s first Eastern Conference Finals appearance since the 1990-91 season.

Though ending up being swept by the New Jersey Nets, the future prospects for the Pistons seemed bright, with their 26 year old point guard proving his worth to the franchise.

Detroit followed up their success from 2002-03 with yet another dominant 2003-04 campaign, finishing the regular season with a 54-28 record and the number three seed out East. Steamrolling their way to their second consecutive Conference Finals appearance, only this time things ended a bit differently.

Beating the number one seeded Indiana Pacers in a hard fought six outings, the Billups led Pistons found themselves headed to their first NBA Finals since 1990. Finding themselves going up against the Shaquille O’Neal & Kobe Bryant led Los Angeles Lakers — with newly added talents such as Karl Malone and Gary Payton –many, if not all, media professionals picked Detroit as the clear underdogs in this series.

However, to everyone’s surprise, these projections proved to be wrong.

Behind the brilliance of Billups’ play — averaging 21 points, 5.2 assists, 3.2 rebounds and 1.2 steals per game on 50.1 percent shooting from the field, 47.1 percent shooting from three and 93 percent shooting from the line — Detroit shocked the world and bested the star studded Lakers 4-1. The point guard wound up winning Finals MVP and helped give the NBA one of it’s greatest Finals upsets in league history.

With Billups as lead guard, his teams found themselves reaching the conference Finals for seven straight seasons (2003-08 with Detroit; 2009 with the Denver Nuggets). He is a 5x All-Star, 3x All-NBA selectee, 2x NBA All-Defensive selectee, a Finals MVP and the Boston Celtics draft pick who garnered the most success while playing for another franchise.