Judgement Day - Allen Iverson

[UDRIH14]

So after 2 seasons playing in the west, what are your opinions about him? Do you guys find him overrated since his on a stackd team now but cant get out of the first round compared to his days in phili.....

[Duiz]

AI = T-Mac

Amazing talent, poor shooting percentages, rather than buoys, they are anchors to sink deep into the ocean of let's forget how much of a failure their teams have been.

[may191988]

No way is he overrated because absolutely everything they say about him is true. He IS a warrior, he IS pound for pound the toughest player, and he IS an incredible talent. However hes stint in Denver does just further accentuate the criticisms about him not being able to play team ball. Ultimately i wouldnt really blame AI though cause thats just not how he plays the game. I think if he would just be in the league to be a distributor he may not be in the league at all, hes there for a reason and thats is to try to take over offensively and thats it u just have to know that going in.

[Ballings7]

Combined with his self-struggles at times, he doesn't have the right kind of team around him (and Carmelo). It's not where it needs to be, and has to be if they want to take that next step as a team.

You need defenders, hustlers, ball-movers, at least one above-average facilitator, and jumpshooters - around AI and Carmelo. Having a post-scorer (Nene revival, emergence?) wouldn't hurt, either.

There's only a partial amount of what is needed so far, and health issues have effected what is there.

I'd go like this...

PG - Facilitator, defender (who can defend SGs with regularity), has reliable shooting ability, at least an average scorer.
SG - AI
SF - Carmelo
PF - Nene?/Kenyon Martin?/productive big man of some kind
C - Nene?/Camby?/ditto

Problem there is Carmelo's not a solid defender yet, if he could pick his spots and play like average defense till the 4th qtr, where he commits more and ranks it up, that'd be huge for the wing defense and Denver's defense in general.

At least one of the big men being able to have an effective offensive game of some kind.

The bench then being well-rounded with role-players and a 6th man type.

Legitimately, build a Rockets/Cavaliers/99-early 00 76ers kind of team around AI/Carmelo... like done with Yao/T-Mac, LeBron, AI.

Regardless, Denver has to get more balanced and diverse offensively to be a title contender. Most importantly become defensive-minded.

[NO-KG-AI]

Lol at Denver being stacked.

[Rasheeed!!!]

Denver just doesn't have the right players around AI & Melo to get it done. Ideally, they would have kept Miller + Melo + Kleiza and traded away Camby and probably one of Nene/Martin.

[penbeast0]

Always an excuse for the Iverson defenders. First it was he didn't have shotblockers and help defenders . . . now he does. Then he didn't have another primary scorer to lessen his load so he has to shoot so much . . . now he does (and he ran off most of the scorers he played with in Philly though none were great all around players). Now it's . . . what?

Iverson, thanks to the rule changes, is playing easily the best ball of his career. However, he is still a poor defender, lazy practice player, and a guy that looks for his own shot and doesn't reward teammates who work themselves open (he does drive and dish well but that's all about whether HE has the shot, not how open they are). Those things tend to discourage teammates from working as hard on team defense, moving without the ball, getting great offensive post position, etc. because they see that those things don't get rewarded. So they turn into a team of guys that look for highlight plays and play as individuals because that's what the team star does. Iverson is one of the most exciting players of all time but not the kind of player that is easy to build a winner around. (And I see the same issues with my team, Washington, and Arenas)

[NO-KG-AI]

Shotblockers and help defenders don't do much good when they are crappy defenders, and poor offensive players.

Camby is so overrated, how many other center's feel the need to take the ball up court on every rebound?

Iverson has his flaws, and playing him next to Anthony Carter is a wonderful way to expose them.

Iverson isn't a bad defender at the PG spot, but he must play next to another guard that can defend the 2, handle some PG duties, and shoot the ball.

AI has played great ball this year, but some guys don't want to give him credit for anything he does, and he's even playing great right now.

When you have a PF coming off of two micro fracture surgeries guarding Kobe Bryant, that says a lot about your coaching also.

[JordansBulls]

So after 2 seasons playing in the west, what are your opinions about him? Do you guys find him overrated since his on a stackd team now but cant get out of the first round compared to his days in phili.....

It's not Iverson's team, it is Melo's team even AI said that when he came. Thus the success of the team falls on the shoulders of Melo more than AI and with the decisions Melo has made the past two years you can see why the team has not succeeded. When your so called franchise player gets into a fight and then gets suspended 15 games that hampers the team growth. Also when you are getting DUI's right before the playoffs that doesn't help either.

As for AI, well show a player in the league now who has performed as well as him in the playoffs other than Shaq or Duncan? In fact, in one postseason alone Iverson scored 40+ 6x. No other current player has more than that for a career in the postseason.

[JR Rider]

Denver needed to pull the trigger and get artest this season..

[UDRIH14]

Yeh but when you compared his current team mates now, they are actually better then the ones he had in phili....so should there be an excuse he and the nuggets cant get out of the first round. And i doubt his phili team that made it to the finals can actually even play against the west top8 this season in a playoff series...

His had it easy in the east back then, now his in teh west, its a different ball game in terms of competitiveness...

[MagicMadness]

The west is just stacked. They're a #8 seed with 50 wins.

Losing this series, if it were to happen, is not Denver's fault. They're not expected to win it. Almost every single west team in the playoffs this year would have a good chance of advancing to the conference finals in the east.

[guy1]

They've had some injuries, they have a stupid coach, and they don't play good defense, yet they still won 50 games in the toughest conference ever. You guys don't think AI has something to do with them winning 50 games in the toughest conference ever? AI is the least of their problems. This team has plenty of flaws, but their still really successful because of their 2 leaders. Its just unfortunate that their success goes unnoticed because its happened in the toughest season ever.

[schneiderjazz]

Denver needed to pull the trigger and get artest this season..

Artest's defense would be great for Denver, but offensively it would be a disaster. Melo, AI and Artest sharing the ball? That would be fun to watch.
And if Denver is having emotional problems right now (just look at the amount of techs they received against the Lakers in key stretches of both games), can you imagine what it would be like with Artest?
IMO, Battier would be perfect for them, but I don't think Houston is willing to trade him.

[MagicMadness]

They've had some injuries, they have a stupid coach, and they don't play good defense, yet they still won 50 games in the toughest conference ever. You guys don't think AI has something to do with them winning 50 games in the toughest conference ever? AI is the least of their problems. This team has plenty of flaws, but their still really successful because of their 2 leaders. Its just unfortunate that their success goes unnoticed because its happened in the toughest season ever.

Exactly. My friend last night said to me, "Why do the Nuggets kind of suck? They have AI, Melo, Camby...?"

I had to remind him that they won 50 games this year, two less than the Magic, and did so in a very difficult western conference. He was like, "Oh. Damn. Good point."

The Nuggets have been very good this year; unfortunately, the west is a beast of epic proportions.

[BballerShotCaller]

AI is not the problem.

The team doesn't have the correct coach who knows what to do with the players he has.

[RIPskaterdude]

AI + Artest = win.

[Buckeye-NBAFan]

He IS a warrior, he IS pound for pound the toughest player.

Pound for pound I bet 1 Shaq could beat up 2 AIs. Depending on the circumstances.

[sp6r=underrated]

-= original quote snipped =-

As for AI, well show a player in the league now who has performed as well as him in the playoffs other than Shaq or Duncan? In fact, in one postseason alone Iverson scored 40+ 6x. No other current player has more than that for a career in the postseason.

Ugh, raw points without looking at anything else. In that 2001 playoff run were he dropped 40 he also shot 0.425efg, 0.480ts.

Just naming players off the top of my head Kobe, Dirk, Wade, Lebron, have all been better playoff performers.

[SendEm]

Carmelo stinks. He is the worst defender in the NBA. Has anyone EVER seen Carmelo hustle and get some floor burns? He's a very overrated player that just contributes on offense by shooting jump shots and occasionally driving. Carmelo is the new Glenn Robinson.