Miami Heat Rumors: Is Chauncey Billups Heat-Bound?

As the NBA rumor mill swirls into over drive, a potential under-the-radar move may be the biggest one of all.

Forget all the Chris Paul and Dwight Howard rumors…what about Chauncey Billups to the Miami Heat?

Sports Illustrated’s Chris Mannix tweeted this nugget late Thursday night:

The Knicks are trying to clear cap space to sign Tyson Chandler and using their amnesty on Billups would clear over $14 million off their payroll and make Billups available for the rest of the league.

There also is the possibility of a sign-and-trade that would send him to the Mavericks. Confused yet? Probasketballtalk’s Kurt Helin explains:

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One way that could happen (signing Chandler) is the Knicks doing a sign-and-trade with the Mavericks that sends Chandler to NYC and Billups to Dallas, where he would share point guard duties with a depleted Mavs team.

If not that, the Knicks will use their amnesty clause on Billups, essentially waiving him. But this does not just make Billups a free agent — he would then be thrown into a secondary waivers where teams under the salary cap could bid on part of his contract. Essentially, if the Sacramento Kings wanted to bid $5 million, they could get him for that (and the Knicks would still pay the remainder of Billups $14 million deal).

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To complicate matters even further, Billups’ agent has told Yahoo! Sports his client would retire in the event a non-contending team tried to pick him up. He wants to play for a winner and the Heat would certainly qualify.

The 35-year-old instantly becomes the best point guard on the team and would be bringing championship experience to the table. He is still more than capable of playing a full season and still has the quickness to be one of the better point guards in the league. Mentally, he is one of the top five. At this point his main focus is on winning a second championship…everything else is secondary.

The Heat would officially be the best team in the Eastern Conference if this happens, yet people would rather keep talking about hypothetical trades and moves that never end up happening.

This may be one of the quieter developing situations in the league right now…but I’d sound the alarm if I’m in the Eastern Conference.

This is a game-changer.