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Nenê started the Knicks game. Expected to start against the Suns.
A win-win situation
A win-win situation
By Steve Kerr, Yahoo! Sports
December 19, 2006
The proverbial "trade that helps both teams" might have occurred Tuesday when the Philadelphia 76ers finally unloaded Allen Iverson and sent him to the Denver Nuggets in exchange for Andre Miller, Joe Smith and two 2007 first-round draft picks.
Philadelphia general manager Billy King basically accomplished all three goals he had when this process began, while the Nuggets added perhaps the fastest player in the league to an already quick, up-tempo team.
Here's what the deal means for the 76ers:
1. They pick up a good player in the deal. Miller will be the Sixers' starting point guard for the foreseeable future. Maybe King would have preferred a younger, up-and-coming star like Randy Foye or Shawn Livingston, but Miller is a very good point guard who will help Philadelphia fill the huge void left by Iverson.
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2. Salary-cap relief. Smith's $6.8 million salary comes off the books after this season, and given that Miller will make an average of $10 million the next two years – compared to Iverson's $20 million average – the Sixers will in effect shave about $10 million off their cap in each of the next two seasons. And depending on their luxury tax situation (they're well over it this season), there could be millions more in savings.
3. Two extra first-round picks (to go with their own). Philadelphia will receive both Denver's pick and Dallas' first-rounder, which the Nuggets had acquired in a previous deal. The Dallas pick will most likely be in the late 20s, but the Denver pick (which apparently is marginally protected) could be interesting, depending on how well the Iverson/Nuggets marriage works out. With Carmelo Anthony out for the next 14 games due to his suspension, Denver could struggle and fall back some in the West. If the Nuggets stumble and don't make the playoffs, the 76ers could potentially have two lottery picks – their own (assuming the Sixers don't make the playoffs) and the Nuggets'. In a deep draft that potentially could include Greg Oden, Philly will have plenty of options to dramatically improve its team.
Here is what Iverson will mean to Denver:
1. He will bring a huge surge of excitement to the Pepsi Center. Iverson will give the Nuggets publicity that is unprecedented in their franchise's history. Fans will flock to see A.I. perform, arena shops will sell a ton of "Iverson" Nuggets jerseys, and there will be a buzz all over the league when Denver comes to town.
2. He'll join a team that already plays an up-tempo style. And with Iverson, that attack will now become even faster. He'll also play for a coach in George Karl who is well-equipped to handle egos and personalities. The prevailing theory around the NBA was that Iverson had to go somewhere with a strong coach who had presence. Karl definitely fits the bill.
3. He'll pair with Carmelo Anthony to form one of the most explosive duos in the league. The Melo/Iverson relationship is the key to the deal. If the two can click and share the ball, the Nuggets could potentially be very, very good. Also, A.I. gives Denver the big scorer it'll need as it attempts to tread water during the extended suspensions of Anthony and J.R. Smith.
Of course, the trade might not turn out well for the Nuggets. Iverson and Carmelo might not mesh. After all, we're talking about the league's two current leading scorers playing on the same team. Can they coexist? The fact that Melo doesn't handle the ball a lot in order to score bodes well, as does the fact that Iverson has proven to be a good distributor when he wants to be. (He averaged 7.4 assists per game last season).
Financially, Denver could be facing luxury tax hell, with the contracts of Anthony, Iverson, Marcus Camby and Nene Hilario putting the team well over the threshold. If the Nuggets don't succeed with this group, they will be hard-pressed to disentangle themselves from a salary-cap nightmare. But if it does work, they could challenge the Spurs, Suns and Mavericks for Western supremacy.
As for the Sixers, there doesn't appear to be much of a downside. This is probably the best deal King was going to get. The key for Philadelphia is to use the draft picks wisely, select the right players and begin to rebuild with an eye on shedding the contract of Chris Webber, which expires after the 2007-08 season.
Steve Kerr is Yahoo! Sports' NBA analyst. Send Steve a question or comment for potential use in a future column or webcast.
Rocky relationship
Rocky relationship
By Adrian Wojnarowski, Yahoo! Sports
December 19, 2006
So here comes the twisted reality greeting Allen Iverson's arrival in Denver, an immediate and inevitable elevation of his public stature from a rebellious perpetual adolescent to thirtysomething sage and imparter of wisdom. Suddenly, he will be cast as the voice of been-there, done-that reason for the reeling Carmelo Anthony.
"A.I. will love it there for the next 14 games," one Eastern Conference official laughed on Tuesday afternoon.
Iverson arrives with the leverage and latitude to cut into Anthony's powerbase in Denver. The situation promises to be equal parts high drama and high comedy in the Rockies, a fascinating chemistry experiment complicated with an unmistakable twist: Because of the NBA's suspensions, it won't be Allen Iverson who must learn to fit in with Anthony, but Anthony with Iverson.
For the next 14 games, it will be Iverson controlling the ball and the shots. He'll be commanding the ooohs and ahhhs and ovations in Denver. Iverson will come to town on a mission, play with peerless purpose and temporarily turn these Nuggets into his own. The NBA's No. 2 scorer will quickly overtake Anthony to be No. 1.
And when 'Melo finally returns, everyone will be asking this unavoidable question: Whose team is this?
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For the desperate straits that the Denver Nuggets found themselves in this week, it is still startling how little they had to give up for Iverson. Joe Smith was a contract dump, Andre Miller has steadily regressed and the two first-round draft picks will probably be somewhere in the 20s. No Nene Hilario, no Marcus Camby, no J.R. Smith had to leave town. It's a coup that Denver had to sacrifice not only nothing of its core but also nothing of its future.
With the way Philadelphia 76ers general manager Billy King has mismanaged his team into irrelevance, the way he banished Iverson and bottomed out his leverage, you could see a dismal deal coming for Philadelphia. Around the league, teams were unwilling to trade their starry young prospects for Iverson. Beyond that, King still couldn't bring back a major expiring contract. Bottom line: To trade Iverson and get so little is a complete embarrassment for the 76ers. It might be the ultimate unraveling of the King regime.
As it turned out, perhaps Larry Brown's consultant's role on the trade with the Sixers was his way of paying back Nuggets coach George Karl for the disaster last Saturday night borne out of Karl trying to avenge Brown's firing by Isiah Thomas. Maybe now Brown can score himself a consultant's job in Denver, advising his North Carolina Tar Heel buddy on coaching Iverson.
To start, Iverson will be on his best behavior. Only he has never shown staying power in his life. Why would it start at 31 years old? Kenyon Martin never wanted to practice with the Nuggets (nor the Nets, to tell the truth) and that's something that was a source of trouble between him and his coach. By next season, if Martin returns, those two game-night warriors will be faking it together through practice, leaving Anthony and Smith to ask each other "So why are we bothering again?"
Karl has made compromises with his coaching style in Denver, running freer and looser with discipline, with his style, and there could be some short-term benefits with Iverson. Sooner than later, there will be issues on the floor. Anthony returns Jan. 20 at Houston, and problems could start as soon as he takes the floor with Iverson that night. That's when everyone will be asking the nagging question that will keep chasing the Nuggets: "Whose team is this?"
In this age, the answer is no longer, "ours," and that assuredly will never be it in Denver. The dynamic of Carmelo Anthony and the Nuggets changed dramatically on Saturday night in New York. Once again, Anthony showed himself to be a flawed franchise player with that sucker punch, a grave mistake compounded with the way he swung and started running back on defense in a sight never seen in his basketball career.
It will stay with the public and the players, and it's created a vacuum for A.I. to come to Denver and make the Nuggets his own. Here comes Iverson with all that been-there, done-that wisdom for Anthony, a twisted reality that will find this suddenly anointed thirtysomething sage thrilled to play the part in public.
No, 'Melo isn't going to like fit into Iverson's game. This was Carmelo Anthony's ball, his franchise, until he gave Iverson the opening to come take it all away.
Adrian Wojnarowski is the national NBA writer for Yahoo! Sports. Send Adrian a question or comment for potential use in a future column or webcast.
Billy King is a dumbass. This trade makes Isiah's work in NY look decent.
Quote:
Originally Posted by timvp
Excuse me? That list has only two names on it and both have ties to Detroit.
How do you trade a top ten talent for scraps? Philly Fan must be going ballistic right about now.
wow, welcome to the west
Hey Cuban you hear that!! Webber is on the market you dumb piece of shit. The missing piece in becoming a POWERHOUSE champion is right there for you to land and you dont even fucking recognize it!! :pctoss :pctoss :madrun DAMN IT! :bangQuote:
Originally Posted by ducks
It will be funny to watch Melo and Iverson in the same team. :rollin :lol
Dude it is getting old about your love crush for Webber. He's not the same player he used to be and not even close.Quote:
Originally Posted by Dirk Nowitzki
one thing for sure.
King didn't act very smart from the beginning.
Sixers would never have made the PO this year anyhow, so there was no need to hurry or to panic.
I'm sure the Sixers could have got more, if they would have been more patient amd would have tried some more option with a third team.
they neither got a premium talent, nor a high pick back, so they are the looser of this trade, no matter how Miller will do.
but I also don't want to call this a total wrong decision. the direction was right IMO.
it was mentioned, that Miller is an asset, who will be easyer to trade again. maybe this was the major intention when aquiring him.
Miller is a bit overpayed, but not by far. he has the kind of contract many teams are willing to swallow, if they think he is the missing piece.
even if he isn't a top 5 PG this days, he would still be a significant upgrade for some teams back-court.
especially for some PO teams that might miss a final piece for becomming contenders.
namely: Cavs, Heat, Rockets, Lakers.
all those teams could return some more expiring contracts, picks (no lottery picks though) and some young talent.
Heat: they have been desperatly looking for help at PG
they could offer Posey (expiring contract at 6.4 m + D. Wright and/or their pick 2007, likely 15-18)
Lakers: Mihm+S.Williams (2 expiring contracts that combine for 6 million) + Farmer (+Lakers pick, likely 22-26- if necessary)
Houston: can't offer as much expiring contr. like the others. maybe Sura (expires 2008, 3.8 per year) + Head + Hayes + filler
Cavs: don't have a pick 2007, could offer the 2008 pick.
+ expiring contracts of Newble and Pollard (5.5 mill) + Varejao.
however, if the Sixers manage to trade Miller in such a scenario, they could have finally traded AI for 3 first rounders + a young talent (Farmer?, Vareao?, Wright?) AND have saved 40 million in salary for AI (considering the fact that they are deep in lux tax territory they save much more, likely 50-60 million)
this scenario is far from being a desaster.
remember the Orlando rebuilding scenarion when they traded t-mac. in fact they traded t-mac for only cap-space.
now they are back as a PO team and have a bright future.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ducks
omg, steve kerr quoted me ;) :lol
Would be just about the worst thing the Mavs could do unless you think Webber would be happy backing up Dirk at power forward.Quote:
Originally Posted by Dirk Nowitzki
I don't see Webber accepting a 12-15 minute bench role and that would be the only way he could possibly fit in with the Mavs.
I don't think Sixers will be able to get for Miller both a young good player and a late first round pick.
Maybe I underrate his trade value but, to me, Miller isn't worth more than expirings + a late first round pick.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mountainballer
are you crazy? Posey by himself is too much to give for Miller, then you add in one of the most promising young players in the league and a 15-18 draft pick for a fat, donut eating PG who might give you a couple of wins...you're
:dizzy
Dorell Wright for Andre Miller = :lmao
I wouldn't trade Wright for two Andre Millers. Wright is the best perimeter playing rebounder to come into the league since Jason Kidd.
It depends on how desparate that team may be. Miami could afford to lose James Posey plus give up a (late) draft pick, but maybe you're not calling Posey a young good player anymore - it's debateable. Not sure Miami would want to trade any more draft picks, as aging as their team is.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bruno
Miller has some real value in a league lacking some good point guards. For a two year rental he's not a bad option at all.
I guess you are in fact underrating Miller a bit.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bruno
the teams I mentioned care for winning now, so if they think Miller is the missing piece, they will be willing to part with a late 1.round pick AND a young player.
We will see but I don't see at all Sixers able to get a talented young like Varejao and Wright (even without a pick).Quote:
Originally Posted by mountainballer
To me, Miller is quite old, his contract isn't very atractive and he isn't that good.
Future will tell.
please consider that in my first post I tried to display a best-case scenario, how the Sixers might end up with a trade, that doesn't look as bad as AI for Miller+2 picks looks right now.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bruno
Is this the most unbalanced non-sign-and-trade trade since the Lakers got Kareem?
I mean, Lamar Odom and Caron Butler were two real up-and-comers (who have since become excellent players) at the time of the trade for Shaq.
Jeff Hornacek was an all-star. Not on the level of Barkley, but not a piece of crap either.
Vlade Divac was a well-above-average center, and Kobe was just some immensely talented high-school kid, before the NBA GMs were willing to take risks on high-school kids.
Andre Miller is a disappointment who everyone thought would be good years ago, but who has regressed at a ridiculous level since his 2000 season in Cleveland. Now he's fat, and a guy no GM in the league really wants. Billy King is a moron for getting suckered into this deal.
:lol only Denver fans must truly know valued Andre is. GK didnt want to part with him but he had no choice in the end.
Dre is a warrior who never misses a game. How many point guards in the league will give u 20pts a night if u need him to, 5-6boards, 9 or more dimes and some steals?
HE could score 20ppg no problem if required but the Nuggets never relied on his offense too much.
I agree with the people saying that a winning team now in need of a point guard would be crazy not to get Dre.
Very nice trade for Denver. Like the J.R. Smith trade, in that they held out for 40 cents on the dollar and wound up getting their price.
(I'm surprised the Sixers didn't at least pick up Linas Kleiza as a throw-in, but apparently reducing costs overcame any other consideration. I think Kleiza could help Philly right now at PF, especially with Shavlik Randolph out indefinitely, and he's a good piece for the future, too.)
Denver is maybe the only second-level team whose half-court offense was bad enough for Iverson (at PG!) to be an immediate improvement, so it's a good fit on that score. I still don't think the Nuggets can be efficient enough to keep up with the top teams over a seven-game series...still, no question they're much more interesting now than they were a week ago.
Danger, High Voltage
By Michael Wilbon
Wednesday, December 20, 2006; E01
What a wonderful basketball experiment the Denver Nuggets are putting together with the acquisition of Allen Iverson. How cool is this: Having the NBA's top two scorers together on one team when it isn't the all-star team? How bizarre is it to pair two players, each of whom has always taken the big shots, the last shots, all the shots that mattered?
We won't know for some time whether this lab experiment will work, what with Carmelo Anthony suspended for 15 games for throwing that punch the other night. For the next month, Iverson will only be asked to do in Denver what he did in Philly, which is to say, be the virtuoso. If the Nuggets are going to stay afloat in the beastly Western Conference for the four-plus weeks Anthony and J.R. Smith are away on suspension, they're going to need Iverson to score the way he's always scored.
Then the fun begins.
One of the two is going to have to do something he has never done in his basketball life: defer.
And Iverson is the one who's going to have to make the concession.
Pro basketball, more than any other sport, has a pecking order. Okay, once every green moon there's a team like the Detroit Pistons that doesn't have one. But the exceptions are so rare they're not worth talking about.
When Nuggets executive Rex Chapman asked after the trade, "How many times has this ever happened?" -- that the top two scorers in the league played for the same team -- he didn't know the answer was "twice." It happened in 1954-55 when Neil Johnston and Paul Arizin played for the Philadelphia Warriors and in 1982-83 when Alex English and Kiki Vandeweghe played for, of all teams, the Nuggets.
So we're talking about the third such case in history. And I know for a fact that Vandeweghe and English were nowhere near the divas that Anthony and Iverson are.
Don't read too much into that last sentence. I think the Anthony-Iverson coupling can and will work to a great degree, because Iverson will compromise as he has never compromised before. And don't get me wrong, Iverson can still be difficult to get along with, but he wants so desperately to win. And what he found out the hard way these last few seasons in Philly is that no matter how much he scores he cannot carry a team into serious contention by himself. Iverson has been celebrated to the high heavens, but the fact is he still hasn't won . . . not in college and not in the NBA.
He's been the league's rookie of the year. He's led the NBA in scoring multiple times. He's averaged more points than anybody in league history besides Wilt and Jordan, and isn't that rarified air? Iverson has been the league MVP (2001). He has twice been voted MVP of the all-star game. He's even led a team to the NBA Finals.
But he's never won.
Not that it was his fault, but he didn't win the Olympic gold medal either.
That summer, 2004 in Athens, when the U.S. players were perceived as selfish bums, Iverson was anything but. He was overjoyed to represent his country for the first time; he talked eloquently about the privilege of being able to do so and how he didn't understand why players wouldn't want to. Iverson at 31 isn't Iverson at 20 . . . or 25. Is he going to practice like Jordan did? Ah, no. Is he going to drive George Karl crazy at times? Yes, absolutely.
But the bet here is that Iverson wants so desperately to be a part of the big action again, the playoff games in May and June that he'll find a way to coexist with Anthony, even play off of him. If this is going to work, Iverson has to realize the moment he puts on the uniform that Denver is Anthony's team, which is an important realization in the NBA.
Of course, winning is relative. Anthony and Iverson still might not win their division. Utah is better. In the conference, Dallas, San Antonio and Phoenix are all better teams than Denver. But hey, Denver wasn't going to win with the roster it had either, and the acquisition of Iverson gets the Nuggets a couple of steps closer, at least.
The aforementioned Karl, who temporarily removed himself from the increased scrutiny over his petty part in creating an atmosphere that led to the brawl in New York on Saturday, sure changed the conversation in Denver, didn't he?
Anyway, Karl has always done well with shooting point guards, such as Gary Payton all those years in Seattle and Sam Cassell in Milwaukee.
Andre Miller is a nice player, but not Karl's type. It's going to take Anthony and Iverson a month of playing together, but during those final two months of the season the Nuggets should be something fabulous to watch. Remember, Anthony is averaging 31.6 points per game while Iverson is averaging 31.2. The NBA has never had teammates average 30 points, and it's up to Karl, Anthony and Iverson to make sure that's a blessing and not a curse. If all three -- and each is famously headstrong -- keep their senses about them, the Nuggets should be a nightmare to guard.
Of course, Georgetown's Iverson isn't the only man with local ties involved in this drama that took more than a week to play out. Billy King, the 76ers president, is from right here, Reston to be exact. He was charged with the unenviable task of getting back enough value in this trade to put a product on the floor that his demanding ticket holders will want to see and make the kind of deal that will allow the Sixers to assemble the pieces that will lead to contention within the next five years.
Did he get them in Miller, Maryland's Joe Smith and two No. 1 picks in the next draft?
Nobody knows.
The Sixers figure to be bad enough to figure prominently in the draft lottery. With their own pick and a little luck, they could get Ohio State's 7-foot phenom Greg Oden, who is shooting 90 percent (from the floor, not the free throw line) and has had the most impressive first four games of any freshman I've ever seen. Or maybe with the consolation prize they get Florida's 6-11 Joakim Noah. You get one of those two, the two non-lottery draft picks become a lot more important, especially because the 2007 draft looks like it's not only great at the top but uncommonly deep.
You never ever get equal value when you trade a star in the NBA. But Philly, with Iverson as its only star, was going nowhere. So King got one expiring contract (Smith's) and, hopefully for him, picks that will turn into at least one franchise player. And Denver got one of the most fascinating players in league history, a player dying to find a team with another great player and hope. The Anthony-Iverson pairing could blend beautifully or blow up. Either way, we cast our eyes west.
Iverson deal is a surprise
By Jason Reid, Times Staff Writer
December 20, 2006
Andre Miller, Joe Smith and two first-round draft picks.
That's what it took for the Denver Nuggets to acquire Allen Iverson on Tuesday from the Philadelphia 76ers, and some in the Clippers organization privately expressed surprise that that's all it took.
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General Manager Elgin Baylor and Coach Mike Dunleavy declined to comment on their efforts to acquire the four-time scoring champion, but team sources said the Clippers apparently made every player available to Philadelphia except Elton Brand, Chris Kaman and Shaun Livingston.
Moreover, the Clippers were willing to trade their own first-round draft pick this season and the lottery-protected first-round pick they received in the Sam Cassell trade. Many in the front office acknowledged Corey Maggette was the centerpiece of the Clippers' final proposal, which also probably included Cuttino Mobley, Zeljko Rebraca and the draft choices.
If the Clippers get Minnesota's pick for June's draft, both could be higher than the Nuggets' two first-round picks, projected to be in the 20s.
The Clippers figured Philadelphia would come back to them before trading Iverson, sources said, because the Clippers' offer was considered better than Denver's best bid.
Philadelphia might have focused on completing a deal with the Clippers if Livingston was available, but Dunleavy wasn't interested in any proposals, including potential three-team trades, that involved the 6-foot-7, third-year point guard. And to make it work for them financially, the Clippers had to send Mobley and his $7.7-million salary to Philadelphia as part of any deal to acquire Iverson.
Cassell was among the players who expressed concern that the ongoing Iverson trade speculation had become a distraction for the team. And what's the mood in the locker room now that Iverson is playing for one of the many teams ahead of the Clippers in the Western Conference?
"We can't worry about where guys are going, what guys are doing on other teams or what might happen in the future, we just have to concentrate on getting this basketball team back to playing the way we know we can play," Cassell said. "We're not where we want to be, we know we're not playing great basketball right now, but we can fix that."
Sidelined recently because of a painful heel injury, Cassell said the Clippers must correct their problems from within.
"We have the guys here to win basketball games and get back to where we should be," he said. "There's no doubt about that in my mind."