CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Chauncey Billups could be playing himself off next season’s team and out of a whopping $14.3 million final-season payday.
As each loss piles up, as each ragged performance goes by, Billups, 34, is giving Knicks team president Donnie Walsh increased motivation to cut ties.
Last night, Billups was 6 of 16 for 14 points, with 10 assists in the Knicks’ sixth straight loss, 114-106 to the Bobcats, missing two jumpers down the stretch.
If the Knicks don’t exercise his option, it would open up 2011 cap space and, would allow Walsh a chance to get a legitimate center through free agency and a cheaper one-year rental playmaker to share the duties with improving Toney Douglas.
Billups has a non-guaranteed 14.3 million due him next season. If the Knicks don’t exercise the team option, Billups gets $3 million. That means $11 million comes off the cap, giving Walsh some room to operate, pending the labor agreement.
Clippers center DeAndre Jordan and Marc Gasol have been on Walsh’s radar — as first reported by The Post.
The Knicks are 1-7 since Billups’ return from a thigh injury. Owner James Dolan thought he had it all set after last month’s 13-player trade, that this club would be on auto-pilot until 2012, when Chris Paul and Deron Williams became free agents and throwing themselves at New York to join Stoudemire and Anthony.
Billups has not run the offense with precision, not allowing the spacing needed to make this brilliant scheme hum, and yesterday Douglas started in the backcourt with him, so he did not have to face the younger, quicker D.J. Augustin.
Billups was brutal Friday against Milwaukee and couldn’t keep with Brandon Jennings, who scored 37 points — 23 in the first half.
After the loss to Milwaukee, Billups took the blame.
“For me personally, I’m disappointed in the way I played. I can’t expect the team win if I play like this,” Billups said. “It was a bad game, so I am really taking responsibility for this one.”
Billups explained D’Antoni’s offense must be run to perfection for it to work. Billups has told confidants he’s not crazy about the scheme. His agent, Andy Miller, had said Billups would retire if he were banished to Newark to play for the woeful Nets.
Billups might want to take his $3 million and run after this mess, though he has said differently about finishing his career in New York. After the trade, Walsh raved about Billups, compared him to Jason Kidd in the vein of playing to 37 because he is in such good shape.
But Walsh declined Miller’s offer to get together and hammer out the final guaranteed year, saying he preferred to wait. It was the shrewd, patient move.