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Denver Nuggets: Top six “glue guys” since 2000

By Kevin Oestreicher

DENVER - DECEMBER 3: Nene #31 and Chauncey Billups #1 of the Denver Nuggets sit prior to the game against the Los Angeles Clippers on December 3, 2010 at the Pepsi Center in Denver, Colorado. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2010 NBAE (Photo by Garrett W. Ellwood/NBAE via Getty Images)
DENVER - DECEMBER 3: Nene #31 and Chauncey Billups #1 of the Denver Nuggets sit prior to the game against the Los Angeles Clippers on December 3, 2010 at the Pepsi Center in Denver, Colorado. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2010 NBAE (Photo by Garrett W. Ellwood/NBAE via Getty Images) /
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AAron Ontiveroz, The Denver Post (Photo By AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post via Getty Images)
AAron Ontiveroz, The Denver Post (Photo By AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post via Getty Images) /

Glue Guy #1: Chauncey Billups (1999-2000, 2008-2011)

Chauncey Billups was traded to the Nuggets in 1999, just two years after he was drafted. The Nuggets were his third team, and they got rid of him just a year later. However, it was when he returned to Denver in a trade that sent Allen Iverson to Detroit where Billups took over as the leader for the Nuggets.

Denver Nuggets
Denver Nuggets /

Denver Nuggets

No one imagined the impact that Billups would have for Denver. After a tumultuous start to his career, where he was partying and not taking the game as seriously as he should have, he settled down and turned his career around, as he was a key piece on Detroit’s championship team during the 2003-2004 season, and was named Finals MVP. He made five consecutive All-Star teams from 2006-2010. He won the J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship award in 2008. No one could have seen what was coming for a young, lost Denver team when Billups was brought into town.

Billups provided the veteran presence the Nuggets had longed. Allen Iverson had been the player that young Nuggets such as Carmelo Anthony and J.R. Smith had looked up to. Iverson was a star, so whatever he did, the young players followed. From ESPN:

"They say Anthony and Smith look at Iverson with reverence, the same way Chauncey’s generation looked at Michael Jordan. So when A.I. says, “Let’s go out,'” they go out. When A.I. wears a sleeve on his arm, they wear a sleeve."

Once Billups came to the Nuggets, he was the a steadying veteran presence the Nuggets needed. Once he turned his career around, he played that role for the Pistons, and once he got to Denver, he single-highhandedly turned the team around. From ESPN:

"The truth is, there’s something right with Chauncey. He’s like a psychologist to the NBA stars…The Pistons are absolutely lost without him…But, without Chauncey, (Michael) Curry has no sergeants, no one to talk Rasheed Wallace off the ledge or lower (Richard) Hamilton’s blood pressure…But the Nuggets are grateful to have him, and team camaraderie skies through the roof."

Billups turned a young, lost Nuggets team into contenders. He taught the young players how to play the right way, and how to win at the NBA level. Without Billups and his guidance, there’s no telling what would have become of the Nuggets. However, they most likely wouldn’t have been nearly as good as they turned out to be.