NBA Rumors: Clippers Must Go After J.R. Smith Amidst Chauncey Billups Injury

J.R. Smith is still stuck in China, but his NBA courtship has already kicked into high gear, thanks to the misfortune of a former teammate.

The Los Angeles Clippers lost Chauncey Billups to an apparent Achilles injury in the fourth quarter of their 107-102 overtime victory against the Orlando Magic. The five-time All-Star and former NBA Finals MVP had to be helped to the locker room and did not return to the court for the rest of the game, leaving with 18 points, three rebounds and three assists in 32 minutes of play.

Billups will undergo an MRI in the coming days, though his teammates and coaches appear to be fearing the worst at this point:

Should Billups' Achilles tendon indeed be torn, he would undoubtedly miss the remainder of the 2011-12 campaign and, at the age 35, may well opt to call it quits after 14.5 seasons in the NBA.

The loss presumably leaves the Clippers without one of their most valuable leaders and with a gaping hole at shooting guard. Head coach Vinny Del Negro will likely call upon Mo Williams and Randy Foye to mop up the minutes left on the table in Billups' absence, with second-year guard Eric Bledsoe joining the mix as he works his way back from offseason knee surgery.

None of those players, though, can quite measure up to Billups as far as skills and intangibles are concerned, and even Billups, as well as he'd performed since arriving in LA after being "amnesthetized" by the New York Knicks, was playing out of position at the off guard spot.

The obvious move for Clippers GM Neil Olshey, then, would be to sign J.R. Smith, Billups' former teammate with the Denver Nuggets, once he's free to return from his stint with the Zhejiang Golden Bulls of the Chinese Basketball Association.

That day might not come until after the All-Star break, but when it does, the Clips would be wise to have a welcome wagon waiting at the airport to whisk Smith off to the City of Angels.

As much of a head case as Smith may be, there's no denying his considerable talent as a shooting guard. Smith is a career 12.5-point-per-game scorer, despite spending the vast majority of his time in the pros as a reserve. It wouldn't exactly be far-fetched, then, to expect Smith to average 15 to 20 points per game if Del Negro were to decide to use him as a starter.

If not, Smith would serve as a superb reserve for Lob City alongside Foye/Williams, Reggie Evans and fellow former Nugget Kenyon Martin, who joined the Clips upon returning from China just last week.

The New York Knicks figure to be in on the bidding for Smith as well and will be able to offer him more money. However, with the Clippers, Smith would be a part of an up-and-coming team that has an excellent chance to advance to the NBA Finals out of the wide-open Western Conference, thanks in large part to the dynamic duo of Chris Paul and Blake Griffin.

At least, that's how the Clips figure to sell Smith on the idea of playing for a hard-luck franchise that's reached the playoffs just seven times in 41 years of existence, four times since the team moved to Los Angeles in 1984.

But if the Clippers are truly keen to bring an end to their decades-long curse of mediocrity and make a charge at their first-ever Larry O'Brien Trophy, they'll need to pull out all the stops to bring Smith, tattoos and all, to the Staples Center.

Especially if Billups' MRI yields a grim diagnosis.

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