Give Me The Rock

or: How the Nuggets kept themselves in the playoff race, and simultaneously crushed the dreams of at least 1 fantasy owner in every league

Probably the biggest trade that will happen all season. First spotted on Fantapedia. AP story on Yahoo right here.

Iverson and Ivan McFarlin for Andre Miller, Joe Smith (another former #1 overall), and 2 first-round picks in 2007.

Couldn’t have happened at a better time for the Nuggets. Of course, Iverson will have 15 games to play by himself, essentially, and then the Nuggs will have to figure out how to get he and Carmelo to coexist with their gigantic scoring averages. At least he’ll keep them in the playoffs until Carmelo returns. Meanwhile, as Sixers Chairman Ed Snider put it: “It was time for us to take a deep breath and say we’ve got to move in a different direction. Allen wanted to move in a different direction.”

Fantasy Impact: Nuggets

Iverson will be playing the role of Carmelo Anthony for the next 14 games. Everything else will probably look about the same until Carmelo returns. So much for that Earl Boykins pickup.

Obviously with two 30+ point scorers on the floor, others are going to suffer. Unfortunately for me, The Others at are JR Smith and Earl Boykins.

Najera and Camby (the other two in the starting lineup) will probably continue to do what they’ve been doing. I imagine JR Smith will continue to shoot/make a healthy number of three-pointers, but his overall scoring will probably dip, and I can’t see him getting any more assists than he already does. Andre Miller was only putting in 13 points a game despite playing 35 minutes. Iverson will gladly take those minutes, but might reverse that 13 to make it a 31. Of course, in order to do that, he’ll have to steal some minutes from someone - most likely Boykins. But if Iverson drops his minutes to the 35/36 that Andre Miller was playing, Boykins can probably continue to contribute his 11.7 points in 24 minutes.

So, the real question is, can both Iverson and Melo score 30+ points a game for the Nuggets? With the pace that the Nuggets play at, it’s possible that Or will they both be happy with about 24? If they do somehow manage to maintain their preferred levels of scoring, Smith, Boykins and Camby are going to take some hits to their point totals. Smith is first in line there, as I said above. Boykins and Camby don’t have as far to fall, and both of them give you other stats that make them valuable. If JR can’t continue to get his nearly 3 threes and 1 steal, he provides almost no value to your fantasy team. It certainly doesn’t help that he’s out for 9 more games.

Fantasy Impact: Sixers

Good news for all Sixers owners! Have another round! This one’s on the house! The Sixers gave up 42 minutes and 31 points, and got only 36 and 13 back. That means even if Andre Miller steps it up to former career levels, he’ll still be providing more points through assists than he’ll be scoring. I can see him getting up to 16-18 points a game, but he’ll also still be getting his 9 assists. Iverson didn’t distribute the rock quite as much, which means a few more openings for guys like Andre Iguodala - who will probably pick up the bulk of the scoring load, Kyle Korver - he’ll be back to getting decent looks at three-pointers, Chris Webber - his game will work better with Andre and Andre in the backcourt, and even “Chillie” Willie Green. I listed them here not only in order of their scoring averages, but also in order of upside from the trade. Willie has rillie been stepping it up in Iverson’s absence and he might even be available on your Free Agent list, but, of course, you’ll want to wait to see what his minutes look like when Miller joins the team.

Of course, another strategy to take with the Sixers players is to try to trade them right now to someone who thinks they’ll start Ballin Outta Control with Andre Miller around to distribute. I’d hang on to Iguodala, but I think any of the other guys are sell-high candidates. Chris Webber is an especially good looking Fools Gold right now, since he should see the ball a lot more without Iverson on the court, but he’ll have to get on the court before he can make that dream a reality. If you’re as risk averse as I am, you wouldn’t have drafted him in the first place, but if you did, now is the best opportunity you’re going to have to see what you can get for him.

If you’d like a second (or third) opinion, you can check out Fantapedia, and also Matt Buser from Yahoo Sports.