Iverson was a drag on the 76ers

[shawngoat23]

Oscar Robertson was a point guard. Iverson is better than Clyde Drexler and hes most certainly better than Dumars and Miller so yes he is a top 5 SG of all time.

Please explain how Iverson is better than Drexler.

[JStockLivesOn]

-= original quote snipped =-



Maybe, that lineup is a finals contender. If Melo keeps up with the bad off court problems. I wouldn't be surprised to see him traded and the Nuggets put all their eggs in one basket, ala Miami in 06.

I hate Melo as much as anyone, but Denver's management would be owed the Worst GM of All Time award if they treated Melo for a 1-3 year (being generous) window for an Iverson-led team. It would be one of the worst decisions in sports history.

[may191988]

I think that everyone can agree on this:

Iverson just does not play a game that will result in an effective basketball system (regardless of the finals appearance which as has already been mentioned just appeared to be an unbelievable fluke)

BUT

Iverson is so easy to admire because the man is a warrior and he will go down as one of the few players from this era who left every last bit of his heart and soul out on the court.

Ultimately though i gotta believe the Sixers were a better team for having him all those years. They proly made the right decision in trading him when they did but i dont think that diminishes his role in sixers history one bit IMO.

[ambiglight]

I think that everyone can agree on this:

Iverson just does not play a game that will result in an effective basketball system (regardless of the finals appearance which as has already been mentioned just appeared to be an unbelievable fluke)

BUT

Iverson is so easy to admire because the man is a warrior and he will go down as one of the few players from this era who left every last bit of his heart and soul out on the court.

Ultimately though i gotta believe the Sixers were a better team for having him all those years. They proly made the right decision in trading him when they did but i dont think that diminishes his role in sixers history one bit IMO.

Plenty of people disagree, hence the love hate dichotomy for AI. Half of basketball fans think he not only is a great warrior but plays winning basketball in the right context.

While the other half despise his style of play and dismiss his accomplishments as a fluke.

The latter half is wrong. While the former doesn't really have any evidence to support that belief.

With exception of 2 or 3 years in philly, AI has not been in a context where the odds werent against his team. Pretty much he has been the victim of bad team management and construction 75% of his career. Every guard that has won in the league as the best player, has played with tim duncan or shaq.

The mcgradys, nash's and AIs have struggled not so much because their style of basketball is flawed as much as they haven't played with shaq or duncan.

now that both those guys are on the decline, the league is wide open for guards to dominate. So if AI can convince his management to stop playing AC he has as good a chance as any other top guards to will his team back to the finals. otherwise he needs to run down to orlando

[Anticon]

I mean, you can blame AI, but they've also added Andre Miller.

Still, even now, the most underrated PG in the NBA.

[The Rebel]

-= original quote snipped =-



Maybe, that lineup is a finals contender. If Melo keeps up with the bad off court problems. I wouldn't be surprised to see him traded and the Nuggets put all their eggs in one basket, ala Miami in 06.

Melo has yet to have a serious offcourt issue, so I do not see that being a factor in a trade, especially considering the Nuggets brought in a guy like AI who has had major problems off the court in his lifetime.

The Nuggets are continuing in AI's misuse... but to say the guy is anything but an incredible talent and warrior reeks of an agenda.

The Nuggets are misusing AI? How so? He was brought in to an already established team with an established identity (and a substantially more efficient #1 scoring option) to bring them over the top, not to have the team completely rebuilt around his game.

I have never seen a superstar, in any sport, be the beneficiary of blame deflected onto teammates as much as this man. Perhaps if he were willing to adapt his game and run the point, which he HAS the passing skills to do, and allow the nuggets to run a legitimately sized player at the two instead of two 6 footers in our backcourt, he might see some more team success.

Agreed, AI was brought in to fit into the team, I am so tired of hearing how the Nuggets have not built around him. That was never the intention, he was brought in to be a PG that helped spread the floor and could get 20 and 10. Unfortunately he pounds the ball too much and is too selfish for the Nuggets to benefit from his skill.

[The Rebel]

ummm... the Nuggets just had the best season ever in their history in probably the most difficult division ever (which means that they also had an incredibly difficult season).

I'm not saying the trade didn't benefit Philadelphia because it did, but the team that benefited the most was Denver.

You might want to do some research, as it was not the best season of the history. And considering that the Nuggets won 49 games a couple of years ago with pretty much the same starters in the front court and Miller/ Buckner instead of AC/ AI in the backcourt, it would be hard to say that he has really helped them any.

[penbeast0]

team defense requires commitment by the stars. Iverson was never willing to play much defense so Cheeks looked ineffective and the team defense never worked that well.

The Sixers were successful one year in making a flashy run to the finals with Iverson, because they got a bunch of veteran, defensive minded players who looked to play defense despite Iverson. Other mediocre teams like the Sprewell/Houston Knicks also made runs out of the Eastern conference during that period.

Over his Philadelphia period I do believe Iverson was a drag on the team for three reasons. The biggest was his negative leadership. When you have a star that won't play team defense, doesn't work hard at practice, and freezes out or works poorly with other scorers, it creates a team where the work environment is not conducive to long term success. Then you add Iverson's below average shooting which lessens the impact of his scoring ability; plus his salary which sucks up cap space to acquire new talent. Overall, he ends up as a franchise drag, yes.

[AWalkerREMIX]

I've never been an Iverson fan, so I completely agree.

[philly262]

This really should be a Billy King bashing thread, because he's the one that built a team around AI that really didn't fit his strenghts.

And the upturn is really because Chris Webber left, and not that much because AI left. Chris Webber was totally inefficient on the offensive end, shooting 43% from the field, and was a total liability on the defensive end.

Adding to that you have an undersized pg, it's hard to play good defense.

Now we have a 6-2,6-3 pg who can defend most pgs and some sgs, and a sf/pf who can actually get out and defend people.

[LakerFanMan]

Anyone who actually watched the 6ers during their finals run, can easily see that AI carried that team. He single handedly beat the Lakers. His defense is also being underrated here. Now a days, he doesn't play much D, but on that finals team he played some pretty solid D. To say they got their in spite of him is just flat out wrong.

[Buckeye-NBAFan]

This really should be a Billy King bashing thread, because he's the one that built a team around AI that really didn't fit his strenghts.

And the upturn is really because Chris Webber left, and not that much because AI left. Chris Webber was totally inefficient on the offensive end, shooting 43% from the field, and was a total liability on the defensive end.

You say Webber was inefficient shooting 43% from the field. What about AI? 41% from the field, 23% from deep in his last year with the Sixers. 05-06 with Webber was one of his better years. Before that, it was more of the same. 42% shooting. 39% shooting. 41% shooting. 40%. 42%. 42%. 41%. Most years, with a sub-.300 shooting percentage from 3. It is very difficult to build around a volume shooter.

[big123]

Many people in this thread think they know what their talking about, but have no clue. Pretty much just spewing off what they want to believe and not half the truth.

[big123]

-= original quote snipped =-



Agreed, AI was brought in to fit into the team, I am so tired of hearing how the Nuggets have not built around him. That was never the intention, he was brought in to be a PG that helped spread the floor and could get 20 and 10. Unfortunately he pounds the ball too much and is too selfish for the Nuggets to benefit from his skill.

You just want to believe what you want and what you want him to be, not the real reason and truth.

[maxwellcu]

22.8 ppg 8.4 FG 22.8 FGA .368 FG% 0.6 rpg 5.8 apg

Clearly this man is of no blame for Denver's poor performance in the postseason last year particularly when he is surrounded by garbage talent putting up deplorable statlines like this:

26.8 ppg 9.4 FG 19.6 FGA .480 FG% 8.6 rpg 1.2 apg

Sorry but when you are shooting 11.2% worse than your teammate (lol) who is scoring 3.8 ppg MORE than you, you should probably stop taking 3+ more shots per game than he is.

[shawngoat23]

I think a lot of people are being unfair to Iverson--an inefficient volume scorer certainly isn't great to have, but there's often a need for a guy that can create when things break down. Statistics don't tell everything.

That being said, it's also ridiculous that so many people overrate Iverson as well. Rather than citing the often fallible statistics, however, they rely on the "hater" defense or whatever else.

I'm done with this thread.

[ambiglight]

It is kind of interesting how AI gets knocked for not winning with his style of play, which heavily dependent on getting to the basket and getting to the free throw line, but other guards that played "efficient" ball but had even less success than he has receive little critique.

The contradiction is what people are talking about when the "hate" card gets pulled.

AI is uniquely effective because he scores buckets, gets to the free throw line, draws fouls, passes more than any other two guard in the league, is a top five player at both guard positions, plays a lot of minutes, and is hyper-competitive.

His knock is that his defense is weak. However his defense is actually average when he's playing against point guards or in a zone defense. His defense is subpar against big two guards in man to man coverage. The truth is there are few if any pgs in this league that are good players on both sides of the ball. You only get match-up problems when you try to force fit mediocre traditional guards into the backcourt with AI. Either you get a very good traditional pg, or you let AI run the point and get two guard that can defend and shoot the three. Unfortunately for AI's legacy philly only tried that with o'brien and they got to the play-offs with AI at the point. They abandoned that strategy because they were winning too many games for them to publicly acknowledge they were rebuilding.

Denver has been pretty successful with AI running the point with JR or Kleiza in the wings. So again AI is not a drag if used correctly.

As for his shooting. Its been at least four years since he shot worse than the league average, and when he was shooting around 40%, his team was winning. He even made it to a finals that way because of scoring so much per shot going to the freethrow line.

[Buckeye-NBAFan]

As for his shooting. Its been at least four years since he shot worse than the league average, and when he was shooting around 40%, his team was winning. He even made it to a finals that way because of scoring so much per shot going to the freethrow line.

Lets be real here. He gets to the line, but not as much as Wade or LeBron. Kobe gets to the line as much and shoots a better percentage.

Paul, D Will, Nash, Billups, Parker ect. are WAY more efficient than AI. And AI can't play 2G because of defense, and he isn't near the PG the above listed guys are. He's just not a top 15 player in this league. Although his efficiency is a lot better than a few years ago.