Dice casts a vote for AI

[Kstat]

McDyess: Pistons must adjust to Iverson
Chris McCosky / The Detroit News

AUBURN HILLS -- Never mind that the Pistons are 7-9 since he's been here, Allen Iverson still has elite level cache around the league.

If the fan voting ended today, Iverson would be the starting point guard for the Eastern Conference all-star team. The first round of balloting was tabulated and Iverson is second among Eastern Conference guards behind Dwyane Wade.

Tayshaun Prince is eighth among forwards and Rasheed Wallace third among centers.

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"Allen is a great player," Antonio McDyess said about his new teammate. "We are trying to adjust and I think we need to play within him, not him playing within us. That's just how I feel. We don't want to take anything away from his game. He's such a great player, such a great scorer, we all around him have to make the adjustment."

McDyess might not have been watching all the games. Iverson is playing close to 40 minutes a game now, but he's not coming close to his career scoring numbers (27 points per game). He's averaging 17.3 points and shooting 39 percent.

Iverson has also been a little slow to adjust to the Pistons' defensive schemes, though on Thursday, Michael Curry gave him a passing grade for his defensive work.

"I think he understands what we're doing," Curry said. "At times he's been OK and at times he's been really good. You look at that Knicks game and we fell behind by 29 points with (Knicks guard) Chris Duhon doing a lot of penetrating; you look at that and think Allen wasn't doing a very good job. But the reality is, 16 of those 29 points came because our five-man (center) missed his assignment."

That five-man was Kwame Brown, who lost his starting job after that game.

[Tahoe]

Great, I like things tilting to AI over Rips cryin ass.

[Black Dynamite]

1.) did this really deserve its own thread? I dont expect Dyess to say anything bad directly about any of his teammates. Part of why he's considered a big time professional.

2.) Tahoe why are you trying to wedge Rip into every iverson related subject like a nagging whore always bringing up her ex when she talks about anything pertaining to men?

[Black Dynamite]

Claiming any player casts votes for AI like some don't is a serious jump of the gun. Rip didn't like the trade, but doesn't mean he's fighting it. I'm glad the players aren't as impatient as the fans seem to be.

Hamilton: In time, A.I. deal will pay off

BY MICHAEL ROSENBERG • FREE PRESS COLUMNIST • December 12, 2008

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The Pistons with Allen Iverson are 7-9.
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The Nuggets with Chauncey Billups are 14-5.

These are the facts that matter most at the moment. And so it's hard to argue with Rip Hamilton's response to my question Thursday. I asked Hamilton if he understands why the Pistons made the Billups-Iverson trade.

"No," he said bluntly.

When I asked Rip to elaborate, he just said, "I don't get into that. I just come out here and play. I always knew basketball was a business."

And speaking of business: A few weeks ago, Billups said he didn't think Rip would have signed his three-year contract extension if he had known the trade was coming. Remember, Hamilton signed just days before the deal went down.

I asked Hamilton if Billups was right.

"Well, Chaunce ... you know what I'm saying, Chaunce ..." he said, searching for the right words. "I love the city of Detroit. When I came here from Day 1, this is somewhere that I wanted to retire. When I got the opportunity to play in the playoffs for the first time, got the opportunity to win a championship, I always felt this is where I wanted to be."

So if Billups had been traded last summer, would Hamilton have signed his extension?

"I mean ... but it didn't happen," he said. "You can say what if, what if, what if all day. This is where I want to be, this is where I want to retire."

From the moment Joe Dumars swapped Billups for Iverson (with Antonio McDyess basically chauffeuring Billups to Denver, then taking the scenic route home), everybody wondered: How would Rip feel? He and Billups were tight off the court and read each other's mind on the court. With Billups gone and Iverson arriving, it was fair to ask if Hamilton would ever see the ball again.

The early returns are not good. Hamilton is averaging 16.1 points and 44.6% shooting with Iverson on the team; both numbers are a drop-off from his recent performance. And Hamilton does not seem nearly as happy without his buddy in the lineup with him.

But as Hamilton would be the first to tell you, it's early. And while he acknowledges that "it took me a minute" to deal with losing Billups, he also said, "I never looked at it that it wasn't gonna work. Allen Iverson is a Hall of Fame player and he wants to win."

Pistons fans, please do yourself a favor. Do not write this team off. I know the Pistons look horrible. I know they are 11-9 overall. But in 2004-05, when they made it to Game 7 of the NBA Finals, they started 12-12. And in 2003-04, when they won the title, they started 16-13. (To be fair, they did not acquire Rasheed Wallace until later that season.)

Listen to a man who was clearly disappointed and shocked when he heard about the trade:

"When you have a unique player like Allen Iverson, and the way that we've been doing things around here, it's not going to happen overnight," Hamilton said. "It's going to take time. We're understanding him, and he is understanding what he has to do also."

Will it happen at all? I don't know. But imagine, for a moment, that Denver offered Iverson for Billups, and word got out, and Dumars said, "No, we're not going to make that trade, we're keeping Chauncey." What would have happened?

Maybe the Pistons would have won the title. More likely, they would have lost to Boston or Cleveland in the playoffs, and most fans would scream that OF COURSE this team wasn't good enough, we'd seen that for three straight years -- Joe should have given that Iverson thing a shot!

Well, he gave it a shot. And now the Pistons are trying to integrate Iverson into their team on the fly -- while playing their reserves more because everybody said they had to develop their bench, and they are determined to do it. They can't do that and win 59 games again. That just isn't realistic.

This is a tough transition -- in a basketball sense and emotionally. Hamilton knows that better than anybody. But it can still work. Hamilton knows that, too.