Iverson becoming a Piston? Seriously?

By now you would have already heard the news. Iverson goes to Detroit for Billups, McDyess and Cheikh Samb. McDyess' contract would most probably be bought out, and Samb calls for no real attention so the trade is basically an Iverson-Billups swap. It looks like a win-win trade, but it's too early to pass any real judgment. I'm not going to discuss about the whole salary cap thing or the "which team is getting the better end of the deal" debate, because you can read about it in ESPN or other places. I just want to touch on two points regarding the two point guards.

Firstly, this move is basically a sign that I'm getting older. No, seriously. Iverson was one of my basketball idols while I was growing up and for Denver to move him in favor of JR Smith getting some minutes just shows that Iverson's time is up. Iverson's current talents is outweighed by JR Smith's potential. Iverson's old, and I'm getting older. Sigh... Oh, and Billups was reportedly moved to give Rodney Stuckey some playing time while McDyess was moved to give Amir Johnson and Jason Maxiell some playing time. Conclusion? These old guys had to move out of the young dudes' ways. Kudos to both organizations for finding the right deal to develop their young players, though.

Second thing, this trade changes the whole perspective of both teams, doesn't it? AI's a star, (or was, according to you haters) and he's now playing in Detroit who've been trying to justify the "we don't need stars to win" view. Then again, maybe AI wouldn't get as much freedom as he did in Denver, hence taking a more team-based approach towards basketball. Very unlikely, but who knows, right? On the Nuggets' side, I thought they wanted to run and run and run and gun, so what the hell is Chauncey doing there? Who knows. Looking at it now, Billups might slow down the offense but he's one hell of a pass-first point guard so he can make it work. Then again, the other Nuggets might have a hard time adjusting or worse, Chauncey might just run and run and run and fall.

Old people getting moved to give young guys a chance, change in basketball philosophies after a few years of losing in the playoffs, all these things show that these two teams are trying to change. We won't be able to tell what they'll change into just yet, but give it some time.Whatever it is, this trade has too many variables for any smart person to judge immediately. Goes to show how complicated life, I mean, basketball really is.