Billups can picture himself staying with Clippers

Chauncey Billups didn’t want to end up with the Clippers.

He didn’t want to get shipped out of his hometown Denver to New York at the whim of Carmelo Anthony. He didn’t want to get waived by said Knicks to clear the way for their signing of Tyson Chandler. Then he told teams not to bid on him while on waivers, but the Clippers did anyway.

But once he stepped back and looked at the situation, Billups realized things in Los Angeles are not so bad. He could picture himself staying with the Clippers past this season, he told Scott Howard-Cooper at NBA.com.

“I’m not going to worry about that until the summer,” he said after practice at the team’s training facility. “But I want to be in a situation where guys are ready to win. Not just win the regular season, but win in the playoffs. We’ll see how this thing shapes up, but if we continue with the mentality that we have and players keep getting better, this maybe the opportunity that’s best for me.”

But how is that going to work, you ask? Chris Paul is the Clippers point guard and Billups has played the point his entire career. How well Billups adjusts to playing off the ball will be one of the keys to the Clippers season.

Billups doesn’t see the issue.

“Chris and I have been two players that have pretty much dominated and had a lot of success in our careers at that position,” Billups said. “For us now to be here together is a little strange, but at the same is a delight for me to be able to have somebody on the floor that’s the same cerebral player that I am. I’m used to seeing things that most people on my team didn’t see. We’re seeing things together and looking at each other, saying, ‘Yeah.’ ”

Eventually the Clippers are going to have to address the two guard spot for the long term, but if they can keep Billups around a couple seasons and he adapts, that is a guy who can help a young team through the how-to-win-in-the-NBA learning curve.