Iverson traded to Detroit?

[GiantsFanatic]

The shakeup promised by Detroit Pistons president Joe Dumars after last season's Eastern Conference finals has materialized just two games into the new season.

The Pistons and the Denver Nuggets have finalized a trade that sends guard Allen Iverson to Detroit in exchange for Pistons mainstays Chauncey Billups and Antonio McDyess.



Young center Cheikh Samb, selected by the Los Angeles Lakers for the Pistons with the 51st overall pick in the 2006 draft, will also be going to Denver in the deal.
It remains to be seen how McDyess' status is resolved, as the 34-year-old reportedly has no interest in playing for any team other than the Pistons, meaning McDyess could choose to retire or negotiate a contract buyout with Denver.

Dumars put the entire Pistons roster on notice after they lost to Boston in the East finals, saying that there "are no sacred cows" on his team and vowing to consider trading anyone -- even a major contributor to the Pistons' 2004 title run like Billups -- in addition to firing coach Flip Saunders and replacing Saunders with the untested Michael Curry.

The Pistons could not find a workable deal over the summer after talking with numerous teams -- Denver included, according to NBA front-office sources -- but it emerged then that Billups, MVP of the 2004 Finals, was the most likely Piston to be dealt.

With Denver's desire to acquire a dependable point guard growing, Dumars moved quickly to finally consummate this deal with the Nuggets, who acquired Iverson from Philadelphia shortly before Christmas in 2006 but failed in two attempts to get out of the first round with a three-man core of Iverson, Carmelo Anthony and Marcus Camby.

Camby was jettisoned to the Los Angeles Clippers in a straight salary dump in July for luxury-tax purposes. After playing sparingly in the preseason, Iverson was stripped of his captaincy last week and averaged just over 13 shots per game as the Nuggets opened with a 1-2 mark.

The Nuggets will be hoping now that the homecoming Billups, a Denver native who starred collegiately at the University of Colorado, meshes better with Anthony, given that he's more of a natural point guard than Iverson. Yet there is some risk for the Nuggets, since Billups is 32 and has three more seasons left on his deal after this one, with the four years totaling in excess of $50 million.

Both Billups and McDyess were Nuggets in the 1990s.

The Pistons, meanwhile, will undoubtedly contend that their risks are mitigated by the fact that Iverson, who turned 33 in June, is in the final year of his contract at $20.8 million.

Dumars loves to gamble on players who are reputed to possess as many minuses as pluses, as seen with the trade-deadline acquisition of Rasheed Wallace in 2004 which spurred Detroit to its first championship since Dumars was playing in 1990. If this gamble doesn't work, swapping Billups for Iverson would give Detroit financial flexibility to pursue a more aggressive makeover next summer, with the highly regarded Rodney Stuckey staying put as the long-term cornerstone of the Pistons' backcourt.

ESPN - Denver Nuggets trade Allen Iverson to Detroit Pistons

I knew Detroit wanted to shake things up, but is Iverson the answer for Detroit? And how would it work with him and Wallace?

[HollywoodLeo]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUYjD7A75HQ]YouTube - Allen Iverson's PRACTICE?! (w/ Counter)[/ame]

[Kingdom]

Leo's never one to beat a dead horse!

[GiantsFanatic]

Practice is overated, signed TO and Burress.

[HollywoodLeo]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rmtO9_wzlI]YouTube - A Conversation Between Allen Iverson and Jim Mora[/ame]

[DirtyKash]

Hopefully Dumars will let Iverson and Sheed walk after the season, then coast through 2009-10 with Rip/Prince/Stuckey/Maxiell/Amir, and then sign LeBron in 2010. That would be sickkkkkkkkkkk.

[love_that_reefer]

Good!! I have Carmelo on my fantasy. I hate AI and the Pistons are now doomed.

[DirtyKash]

Good!! I have Carmelo on my fantasy. I hate AI and the Pistons are now doomed.

The Pistons aren't doomed. They were just sitting there doing the same things year in year out. Sure, Iverson is old and getting beat up, but he changes the face of the team and will help bring new blood and an up-tempo game. The Pistons needed a change after three straight years losing in the ECF; this core wasn't getting it done as far as advancing deep enough in the playoffs. And, with Stuckey coming up, Billups is expendable, so after Iverson leaves this offseason and his contract comes off the books, Stuckey takes over next year for good and the Pistons are players in the FA market either in 09 or 10 (LeBron, Bosh, Wade) while still retaining a solid core.

[love_that_reefer]

Iverson will do this team no more than Billups did.

[realmofotalk]

It seems to me that Pistons decided that being steady but unspectacular stopped getting things done, and Chauncey Billups best exemplified that style of play, so he had to go. But then again, the Nuggets thought the same thing about Andre Miller.

[love_that_reefer]

Billups and the Nuggets will do better than the Pistons.

[DirtyKash]

Billups and the Nuggets will do better than the Pistons.

How, exactly? The Nuggets haven't won a playoff series in ages. They're even going to have a tough time just making the playoffs in the Western Conference.

[love_that_reefer]

Billups is a better team player and the past doesn;t mean shit now. Billups wasn't on teams in the past so what does that matter. What some history? Iverson didn;t win shit with the Nuggets last year. There's some history. Billups fits the Nuggets better than Iverson.

[DirtyKash]

Iverson didn't win with the Nuggets because the Nuggets don't have shit aside from Carmelo Anthony. And now the Nuggets still don't have anyone besides Anthony and Billups. The Pistons have the superior starting lineup, vastly superior bench and they play in the easier conference. Pistons make it further, Nuggets struggle to even make the playoffs.

[love_that_reefer]

We'll see. Like I said, Iverson will do no better than Billups did with the Pistons.