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.
The Denver Nuggets have exercised the fourth-year option on F Renaldo Balkman’s contract, team Vice President of Basketball Operations Mark Warkentien announced today.
Whatever the reason, former Nuggets center Marcus Camby no longer openly harbors the bitterness that came over him when Denver traded him to the Los Angeles Clippers in a cost-cutting move July 13. Sure, Camby still believes the Nuggets could have handled the situation better, but he appears to have moved on from the days when he felt “blindsided, distraught, disrespected.” “I was upset at the time, how things transpired out there in Denver, but after being out here, that is like a thing of the past right now,” Camby said during a telephone interview from Los Angeles. “I’m enjoying my new situation. I’m enjoying this new chapter of my career. I’m going to try to make the best of the situation, but I think the situation can be a great one and a promising one.”