Constructive Critizism on Iverson

[noone]

I agree with everything. However, I liked AI when under Larry Brown as a 2 more. I'm not saying he can't play PG, but I feel he's more effective and balanced at the 2.

Obviously. SG is Iverson's natural position, so if you can find that PG to play alongside Iverson, then great. But my point is/was that finding that PG isn't an absolute necessity.

[big123]

I agree with everything. However, I liked AI when under Larry Brown as a 2 more. I'm not saying he can't play PG, but I feel he's more effective and balanced at the 2.

Obviously. SG is Iverson's natural position, so if you can find that PG to play alongside Iverson, then great. But my point is/was that finding that PG isn't an absolute necessity.

True. AI has been doing a relatively good job to people like myself, you and some others that know what their talking about, it's just the people that are expecting him to be as good as Nash, Kidd and Paul at the point, are the people that erk me to death.

[Ballin02]

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Yeah I agree with him. AI at the point makes no sense because he's not a PG. The Nuggets didn't have to get or play Carter or Atkins, but they did and doesn't help anything.

So you just dismiss AI as a scorer, one of the best of all-time and playing out of position right now? I'm not saying Melo isn't crazy good, because he is, but to just dismiss it is outragous.

All I'm getting from this post is Melo good and AI makes Melo look bad. I'm really sick of hearing that. He even says AI needs to go if the Nuggs get Artest. Did you just start watching basketball this year to make your conclusion that AI is worthless?

I am not saying that AI is worthless and I am not dismissing him. Not at all. There was a reason why AI was traded for so little. Miller was good but he got traded for a supposed "superstar".

That's because most GM didn't think AI would make them better, especially not playoff teams in the West. AI is ball-dominant and he won't work with most stars. He's a point guard and a great scorer at the same time so he thinks he need to do everything.

Melo is a better scorer than AI. It is simple as that. Right now, Melo is not the true #1 option. I've seen a lot of Nuggets ball this year and sometimes Melo doesn't even get to catch the ball in a half court set. It's ridiculous because AI dribbles and dribbles and then force a pass.

If you get Artest, say good bye to your ball movement because he'll hold the ball and go one on one just like Melo and AI. If you've seen Artest play at all then you'll know that he thinks he is the #1 option on offense in any team.

Yes, he's a great defender but he also plays offense. The numbers at all nicely but it won't translate to on court success.

You can clearly tell that the West All-Star team played much much better out there with Paul than AI. I know it's only an All-Star game but it's a good indication of how AI doesn't work with other good players. He's not a pass first point guard and he doesn't know how to set all of his teammates up like a Nash or Kidd or Paul.

Watching Kidd and AI is like a night and day difference. One player doesn't know whether to score or to the pass while the other knows exactly what to do in any given moment.

Everyone says that the Nuggets have the most talent on paper and I agree but one thing is for sure, you guys have the wrong talent in the PG position. AI is a shooting guard at heart trapped in a PG's body. That's why when you have him running the team, there's no ball movement, no extra passes, no passing it to the guy who's hot or who's wide open. And if you don't have him run the team and play him at the SG, your back court would be horrible defensively.

The only hope is to have a big point guard like a Shaun Livingston who can guard SGs and have AI play the SG spot and guard PGs.

^^ Dude, you sound more like an Iverson "hater" or a "Melo fan" then a "lakers fan". GTFOH with that BS. There are more then a few reasons that come into play why the Sixers didn't get as much as they should have for Iverson;

1.) Like "noone" already pointed out, once the Sixers GM announced on National t.v that Iverson wanted out of Philly and that he had probably played his last game, GM's knew that they could low-ball them. Thats why every commentator got on the Sixers GM's case saying that they think he did that to throw both Iverson and Billy King under the bus and he basically played himself. Which I think is true as well. Because once teams know you want out, they will low ball the team. Not as many GM's were interrested in KOBE as some might think, because A.) they were afraid he would mess up their teams chemistry, B.) They knew at first he wanted out of L.A so they were going to try to low ball the Lakers and C.) they didn't want to give up as much to get him. Trades depend on the right timing and situation nomatter what player it is.

2.) When the Sixers actually were going to go through with the trade they said all they wanted were expiring contracts and draft picks. That is very limiting. They didn't want any players with big contracts, which eliminates other stars in the league to be traded for. There was Miami, Utah, Clippers, Denver, Boston, Sacramento, Golden State and even Marc Cuban (Dallas) said he was trying to figure out how to get Iverson, all were in the running. At the end of the day Denver had what they were looking for (expiring contracts and draft picks) so they went for it. During the summer of 06' Utah was talking about giving up Boozer and some other pieces for Iverson, Clippers were talking about giving up Shaun Livingston and Corey Magette (when Ed Snider said on t.v that AI wanted out, the Clippers tried to lowball by saying they weren't going to give up Shaun because they knew Iverson wanted out), they said Danny Ainge would have given up everything besides Paul Pierce (so he and Iverson could play together ofcourse) to get Iverson. There you go. Some of you people come on the Internet trying to act as if nobody wanted Iverson and that is far from the case. I wish people would start checking FACTS instead of just coming on the Internet talking crazy.

Also, maybe if you watched the games you would know that Iverson plays the SG position and only plays some PG minutes when need be. So your comparisons of him against Kidd and Paul (pure PG's) are irrelevent. As far as Melo supposidly being a better scorer then a guy that holds the 3rd highest PPG average in the history of the league...i'm not even going to get into that because i'm over it. As far as the All-Star game is concerned...Iverson had 6 tournovers in the first half (its an ALL STAR game, everyone had turnovers), and half of those came from players just not paying attention to the pass. How many times did we see a player pass the ball to Dirk and he almost got hit in the back because he wasn't paying attention. Iverson also had 7 pts, 6 assists, 2 blocks a 4 steals....so its safe to say he made up for those turnovers. He was the All-Star MVP twice so which means he plays very well with other players.

For the record, if Iverson opts out and leaves Denver after this season, I wouldn't fault him. Not because I don't think him and Melo are not working well together, because I actually think they are doing a better job then what most people thought of sharing the ball and making things work out. And not because I think he is "stunting Melos growth" (true great players don't allow other players to "stunt their growth" by the way), and I think Melo is growing more then what people give him credit for. All some of you people look at is points, BOTH him and Iversons ppg average went down when they started playing together (Iversons in perticular). Why? Because your not going to average 30 ppg when your playing next to another dominate scorer, use commen sense. Nor should they have to average that much on this team. Melo is growing in other areas of his game, give the guy some credit.

I think Iverson should leave because at this point I think him being in Denver is helping Denver out more then him. He's still putting in just as much work as he did in Philly, his presense in Denver has brought more of a spotlight on that team and city then it would have had had he'd not come there in the first place, all of that is in Denvers favor. That team seems to have no sense of urgency at times and its dissappointing to watch. If they don't win atleast one series in the playoffs this year, he needs to walk and leave some of you to continue on complaining and find someone else to blame for why Carmelo hasn't developed into a dominate player and whatever else you choose to pick apart that day.

[Ballin02]

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Hey man, it is easy to see what the Nuggets' problems are when you're an outsider and not a fan of the team. It is hard to see the problems if your favorite player is the main problem.

Take my word on this: the Nuggets are a second tier team relying on pure talent to win games and not much team work. It won't work in the playoffs as the indication in last year's playoffs series showed.

Denver is the least team I worry about for the Lakers to play. We swept you guys this year because we were able to exploit your defensive weaknesses: AI and Carter.

Even when AI scored 51 points and had a perfect night, we still beat you guys.

IMO, you guys can't beat any playoff teams in the West this year with the exception of maybe the Warriors.

^^ Are you finished trolling now? I swear the cockiness of some "lakers fans" never fails to amaze me. Your team just started playing as a TEAM this year and thats because Kobe finally got it in his mind that he can't do it alone. This is the first year that Lakers team has just now started playing decent b-ball after Shaq left....and you're cocky? Hilarious.

You talk about Iverson scoring 51 pts and Denver losing...how many times have we watched Kobe score a high amount of points in the post Shaq era and his team lost? Hmmmm? Denver didn't lose because of Iversons 51 pts. (in which he also got 8 ast), he lost because A.) Coach Karl moved AI to the PG position in the 4th and told him to passed the ball because he was getting triple teamd and Karl thought by Iverson passing the ball to open teammates they would actually make the shots...they didn't. And B.) The Nuggets didn't play defense when it counted. Those two factors lost them the game.

And while your busy being cocky about who's team is going to win/lose in the playoffs...there is only 4 1/2 games seperating seeds 1-8. The West is extremely tough this year meaning EVERYONE is going to have to bring their A-game if they want to advance. Maybe instead of worring about the Nuggets supposed problems you should be more worried about your own team and making sure they make it out the first round this year (remember they haven't made it out the first round since the Shaq-era), because if they get upsetted you Lakers fans better prepare yourself for another KOBE crybaby rant about wanting to be traded. Worry about that.

Now for the love of god, get out of here and quit posing as a concerned "lakers fan" when your pathetic attempts to bash Iverson say otherwise.

[ambiglight]

For the record, if Iverson opts out and leaves Denver after this season, I wouldn't fault him. Not because I don't think him and Melo are not working well together, because I actually think they are doing a better job then what most people thought of sharing the ball and making things work out. And not because I think he is "stunting Melos growth" (true great players don't allow other players to "stunt their growth" by the way), and I think Melo is growing more then what people give him credit for. All some of you people look at is points, BOTH him and Iversons ppg average went down when they started playing together (Iversons in perticular). Why? Because your not going to average 30 ppg when your playing next to another dominate scorer, use commen sense. Nor should they have to average that much on this team. Melo is growing in other areas of his game, give the guy some credit.

I think Iverson should leave because at this point I think him being in Denver is helping Denver out more then him. He's still putting in just as much work as he did in Philly, his presense in Denver has brought more of a spotlight on that team and city then it would have had had he'd not come there in the first place, all of that is in Denvers favor. That team seems to have no sense of urgency at times and its dissappointing to watch. If they don't win atleast one series in the playoffs this year, he needs to walk and leave some of you to continue on complaining and find someone else to blame for why Carmelo hasn't developed into a dominate player and whatever else you choose to pick apart that day.

wow you got a way with saying that on this board