The Iverson deal took ten days before an announcement was made that both sides had agreed in principal. Along with Iverson, the Nuggets got 6’8” rookie Ivan McFarlin. The 76’ers get Andre Miller, a point guard with some really tricky and exciting moves, but not great at the defensive end of the court, forward Joe Smith and two 2007 first round picks. At this point, McFarlin, Smith and Miller are likely destined to be trivia material for a future question on Stump the Schwab, “who else went in the 2006 Iverson trade?” There can be no doubt that this trade was all about A.I. and his hopes for an NBA Championship.

WHO WINS THIS ONE?

Some of 76’ers bloggers feel that this was not a deal to inject much in the way of anything positive near term for the team. Because Iverson was such an important part of the Philadelphia offence, it’s hard to imagine who will come in and pick up the pieces. They will need some one to entirely immerse themselves in the offence similar to what Iverson did if they wish to play the same style of basketball. This is not likely to happen, so they may have to rely on Miller’s unselfish play to feed his new teammates. That begs the question, who is that he will be feeding? When you look through their roster, no one jumps out as a candidate to become the scorer. Then, to find anything really positive for Philly, you would have to consider that this is a trade for the future and the two draft picks will be where they reap any benefits. If they become lottery lucky and happen to pick up Greg Oden if he comes out, this might turn out to be one of the greatest trade coups in years.

The Nuggets should be considered as the short-term winners in this trade. The Nuggets now have the number one and number two NBA scoring leaders on their team. It will be really hard to mesh these two. Carmello”s scoring chances are likely to drop considerably as Iverson has never been one to give up the ball too easily. It’s a shame in a way that Anthony will not be around for the first fifteen of A.I’s starts with the Nuggets, because when he returns, Iverson will already have his footprint all over this team. If however, George Karl can somehow fit these two guys into a workable offence, the Nuggets will be a tough team to outscore. Good luck George!

Advantage, Nuggets this year, 76’ers long term?