Grading The Deal: Iverson To Denver
After ten plus seasons in Philadelphia, Allen Iverson finally gets to realize what it is like to play with legitimate talent as he takes his 28.1 career scoring average to Denver. When Carmelo Anthony’s suspension ends, the two will team up to form the most prolific scoring duo in the league.
This isn’t like the pairing of Iverson and Glenn Robinson (who Anthony is commonly compared to), when Big Dog’s skills were already eroded.
Iverson is a volume shooter, who has always been the infallible focal point of the Sixers’ offense, so the Nuggets’ success will he be based primarily off how he adjusts his game to the inevitable decrease in his shots per game average?
Denver:
When Anthony and J.R. Smith return, the Nuggets will likely feature the following starting line-up:
PG: Iverson
SG: Smith
SF: Anthony
PF: Eduardo Najera
C: Marcus Camby
Filling out the rotation will be Earl Boykins, Reggie Evans, Nene and Yakhouba Diawara.
With Andre Miller off to Philadelphia, the glaring hole on the club’s roster is at the point guard position. Iverson is capable of being a true point guard (more in the Steve Francis/Stephon Marbury sense than Steve Nash), but will he be keen to truly embrace the demands of distributing the ball and initiating an offense that doesn’t simply call for him to come off a myriad of screens?
The Nuggets must be hoping that Iverson legitimately transitions from scoring small guard into a point guard that performs the duties because it is a huge risk to impede the development of Anthony. Becoming a ‘passing will be my 1b option’ will prolong his career and give a depth to his legacy that he would have never been able to accomplish in Philadelphia.
Boykins will play point guard while Iverson shifts to shooting guard during some sequences, but he is more of a shooting guard as well, so the Nuggets are likely to acquire a point guard before the deadline arrives.
Iverson would have been much more likely to defer to Anthony had Saturday’s fight not occurred, but since he will have played about a dozen games until the incumbent star returns, that likelihood decreases drastically.
Fortunately while those two figure out how to balance their scoring, there isn’t another player on the roster who needs to have the ball in their hands with much frequency to be effective.
George Karl has demonstrated an ability to get along with big egos, but this trade reeks of the Ray Allen for Gary Payton deal he pulled off while in Milwaukee. The Bucks brought in Payton despite the presence of Sam Cassell, much the same as duplicating great scorers here.
There are three key differences as to why this trade is better for Denver than it was for that Milwaukee team:
1. Iverson is still one of the best players in the league, while Payton had begun to decline when he joined the Bucks.
2. Iverson arrives at a time when the Nuggets will be without their two best scorers for ten games and he will prevent the club from suffering a substantial setback in the win-loss column.
3. The price to acquire Iverson was far less than it was for Milwaukee when they gave up Ray Allen.
Grade for Denver: B+
Philadelphia:
Billy King was able to find a taker for Allen Iverson outside of the Eastern Conference, but beyond that, not much was accomplished. The two first round picks are expected to be in the 20's and while Miller's contract is almost half of Iverson's, he isn't one of the better values in the NBA. Miller is a serviceable point guard and could jumpstart Andre Iguodala from his static development, as well as Samuel Dalembert's.
He had hoped to acquire a Randy Foye, Shaun Livingston or Monta Ellis, but no GM was willing to budge on relinquishing young talent of that caliber. King apparently got tired of waiting for that kind of deal, which could have immediately led to a turnaround in the direction of the franchise and settled for one he could merely live with.
Grade for Philadelphia: D+
After ten plus seasons in Philadelphia, Allen Iverson finally gets to realize what it is like to play with legitimate talent as he takes his 28.1 career scoring average to Denver. When Carmelo Anthony’s suspension ends, the two will team up to form the most prolific scoring duo in the league.
This isn’t like the pairing of Iverson and Glenn Robinson (who Anthony is commonly compared to), when Big Dog’s skills were already eroded.
Iverson is a volume shooter, who has always been the infallible focal point of the Sixers’ offense, so the Nuggets’ success will he be based primarily off how he adjusts his game to the inevitable decrease in his shots per game average?
Denver:
When Anthony and J.R. Smith return, the Nuggets will likely feature the following starting line-up:
PG: Iverson
SG: Smith
SF: Anthony
PF: Eduardo Najera
C: Marcus Camby
Filling out the rotation will be Earl Boykins, Reggie Evans, Nene and Yakhouba Diawara.
With Andre Miller off to Philadelphia, the glaring hole on the club’s roster is at the point guard position. Iverson is capable of being a true point guard (more in the Steve Francis/Stephon Marbury sense than Steve Nash), but will he be keen to truly embrace the demands of distributing the ball and initiating an offense that doesn’t simply call for him to come off a myriad of screens?
The Nuggets must be hoping that Iverson legitimately transitions from scoring small guard into a point guard that performs the duties because it is a huge risk to impede the development of Anthony. Becoming a ‘passing will be my 1b option’ will prolong his career and give a depth to his legacy that he would have never been able to accomplish in Philadelphia.
Boykins will play point guard while Iverson shifts to shooting guard during some sequences, but he is more of a shooting guard as well, so the Nuggets are likely to acquire a point guard before the deadline arrives.
Iverson would have been much more likely to defer to Anthony had Saturday’s fight not occurred, but since he will have played about a dozen games until the incumbent star returns, that likelihood decreases drastically.
Fortunately while those two figure out how to balance their scoring, there isn’t another player on the roster who needs to have the ball in their hands with much frequency to be effective.
George Karl has demonstrated an ability to get along with big egos, but this trade reeks of the Ray Allen for Gary Payton deal he pulled off while in Milwaukee. The Bucks brought in Payton despite the presence of Sam Cassell, much the same as duplicating great scorers here.
There are three key differences as to why this trade is better for Denver than it was for that Milwaukee team:
1. Iverson is still one of the best players in the league, while Payton had begun to decline when he joined the Bucks.
2. Iverson arrives at a time when the Nuggets will be without their two best scorers for ten games and he will prevent the club from suffering a substantial setback in the win-loss column.
3. The price to acquire Iverson was far less than it was for Milwaukee when they gave up Ray Allen.
Grade for Denver: B+
Philadelphia:
Billy King was able to find a taker for Allen Iverson outside of the Eastern Conference, but beyond that, not much was accomplished. The two first round picks are expected to be in the 20's and while Miller's contract is almost half of Iverson's, he isn't one of the better values in the NBA. Miller is a serviceable point guard and could jumpstart Andre Iguodala from his static development, as well as Samuel Dalembert's.
He had hoped to acquire a Randy Foye, Shaun Livingston or Monta Ellis, but no GM was willing to budge on relinquishing young talent of that caliber. King apparently got tired of waiting for that kind of deal, which could have immediately led to a turnaround in the direction of the franchise and settled for one he could merely live with.
Grade for Philadelphia: D+
