If you're an NBA fan you already know that the Pistons recently dealt Chauncey Billups, Antonio McDyess and Cheikh Samb to the Nuggets for one Allen Iverson.
My gut reaction to this trade was negative. Billups and McDyess are fixtures in the Pistons organization. It'll be particularly tough not seeing Billups at the helm of this team. As for McDyess, well, it sound like there's a good chance Denver buys him out and he returns to Detroit in 30 days. I hope that happens because the guy genuinely wants to win with the Pistons and he deserves to be here.
That said, I have to say the trade is growing on me. For all his flaws, Iverson has turned into a pretty stand up guy over the years and I think there's potential for him to change the way the team plays during playoff crunch time, which is definitely something the Pistons needed. And with the trade happening so early in the season, there's a lot of time to figure out how Iverson can gel with the current core and they with him. Plus, if it doesn't work out, Iverson's contract is up this year, which gives the Pistons loads of space under the cap with an emerging star in Rodney Stuckey ready to take over the helm.
Iverson was officially introduced to the press as Piston yesterday. The press conference was pretty typical, but it did feature one moment of hilarity:
