Knicks bring Billups back for $14.2 million

Chauncey Billups is back in the fold for the Knicks next season, but there is no guarantee he will finish the year with them.

Yesterday’s decision not to buy out Billups, despite his nightmarish, injury-wrecked playoffs, is a no-brainer on several levels.

Billups’ trade value could be significant next season if the Hornets put pending free agent Chris Paul on the block at the trade deadline or the Magic try to trade Dwight Howard before he reaches free agency next summer. The Knicks have a paltry amount of trade chips as it is.

Billups will make $14.2 million next season, an expiring contract for a player still considered among the top 10 point guards in the NBA.

In another scenario that Billups would love, the Knicks could deal Billups back to his hometown Nuggets this summer in an attempt to get back restricted free agent Wilson Chandler and Raymond Felton, neither of whom is happy in the Rocky Mountains. The Knicks, as reported in yesterday’s Post, have an interest in trying to woo Chandler back to New York.

In the wake of The Post’s report that Walsh is expected to return next season, the Knicks president made the announcement Billups will be kept.

Billups could have been waived by tomorrow’s deadline and bought out for $3.7 million. The savings, however, would have brought the Knicks under the salary cap by, at best, $8 million, and they would have been in dire need of a point guard amid a bare free-agent crop.

“We have made a decision to keep Chauncey Billups for the upcoming 2011-12 season,” Walsh said in a statement.

“Chauncey, Amar’e [Stoudemire] and Carmelo are a great nucleus, as we continue to look to improve our team going into the offseason. Chauncey is an extremely talented and experienced point guard — we are very happy to have him back.”

During Monday’s breakup day, Billups said his body felt great, but he planned on dropping five pounds to adjust to D’Antoni’s system.

“My body has been great,” Billups said. “I’m 34, not 39. My first five years I didn’t play that much anyway, unfortunately, but my body is fine. My game is more mental. I’m going to beat you, and I’m going to outsmart you.

“I loved being a Knick this year,” Billups added. “It was a great time. I would love to be a part of bringing championship-caliber basketball back to the city.”