The Denver Nuggets don’t appear to be championship-bound with a core of Carmelo Anthony and Allen Iverson. The team is good, but may never be great. With Melo the younger player, the Nuggets are giving up on the combo and sending Iverson to Detroit. In return, the Pistons will send point guard Chauncey Billups and power forward/center Antonio McDyess to Denver.
InsideHoops.com first got wind this deal, which has been reported as a rumor in the past, would actually happen from Marc Spears’ Boston Globe blog.
Looking at the trade for the Pistons: Detroit gets a big-time scorer in Iverson who is a natural shooting guard but can pretend to be a point guard. Chances are, Iverson will start at PG, with Richard Hamilton staying at shooting guard, and young talented point guard Rodney Stuckey continuing to come off the bench. Hamilton is too undersized to play small forward for more than a few minutes. Billups is a better floor general than Iverson, but Iverson’s the quicker player and better scorer. As for Antonio McDyess, he was coming off the bench but still important for Detroit. Amir Johnson and Jason Maxiell will have to step up more with Dice gone. And Kwame Brown becomes more important.
Detroit also gets tons of extra salary cap space in the deal.
Looking at the trade for the Nuggets: Gone is Iverson and in comes Billups, who is better than Iverson at running an total team offense. Billups is also a stronger, more physical defender. Billups doesn’t draw defensive attention like Iverson does, but he can do a better job setting up JR Smith, Carmelo Anthony (who can also create his own offense anytime he wants), Kenyon Martin and Nene.
Also, Billups is a Denver guy.
