Let’s Swap Aging Point Guards: Chauncey Billups for Allen Iverson

Categorized as: Author: Patrick, Denver Nuggets, Detroit Pistons, Fantasy Basketball, NBA Basketball, NBA Teams, Random Stuff, Trades
Posted on: November 4th, 2008

As has been reported by a number of news outlets, the Pistons and Nuggets agreed on a trade yesterday that sent Allen Iverson to Detroit in return for Chauncey Billups, Antonio McDyess and Cheikh Samb. It’s a deal that basically works for both teams, although I’m not quite enthusiastic about it contract-wise from Denver’s point of view as some people are.

Winners and Losers

Honestly, for such a large trade (although it falls short of blockbuster status in my opinion) the fantasy implications of it are pretty weak. There is one big winner – JR Smith – who will likely become Denver’s starting shooting guard and average close to the 30 minutes he’s gotten through the first three games of the season. Expect some big scoring games from Smith along with a mad amount of threes.

Now, as I said in an earlier post, if you drafted JR Smith, go f**k yourself you lucky asshole. There is a 90% chance the guy is going to go off this year and you can sit back and enjoy the show. However, if you don’t have JR Smith on your team, I wouldn’t recommend trading for him now unless the guy who owns him in your league is an idiot. At this point, you’ll probably have to overpay way too much for Smith.

The big loser in the trade is my man, Anthony Carter. With Billups joining the team, his run as the team’s starting PG is over (//wipes tears//). Carter will likely be the first guard off the bench, but he’ll be hard pressed to maintain his 30+ minutes a game average. I’m not dropping Carter yet (I’m holding out hope he can still get 25-28 minutes off the bench), but I’m certainly not giving him a long leash if he’s relegated to bench duty.

The Rest

I’d hesitate to call anyone else a winner or loser from this trade. The Amir Johnson and Jason Maxiell duo is mentioned as two guys who could see an increase in playing time. Sure, they’ll see an increase. Of like 3 minutes a game. For example, in the Pistons game last night, Johnson started and got 23 minutes, Maxiell also got 23 minutes, Walter Herrman got 19, and don’t forget about Kwame Brown who saw 17 minutes. Isn’t that Detroit’s deal anyway, spread the minutes around? None of these guys is going to average 30 minutes a game and very few players have decent fantasy value if they don’t see at least 30 minutes on the court (trust me, or I will send you a 20,000 word email explaining my thoughts on the subject). If Johnson or Maxiell are already on your team, keep these guys around to see what they’ll do, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to get them.

Can Billups improve? Maybe a little playing in Denver’s offense, but he was a 2nd/3rd round pick in most drafts, which means he’ll just be performing up to that level. You might want to target the guy if you’re especially ramped up about Billups and/or you can get his owner to give him away at a decent value. At least it’s a low risk trade with some possible upside if Chauncey starts to run wild in Denver.

Is Allen Iverson hurt by playing that “Detroit” style of basketball. I guess we’ll see, but I’m not overly worried. He adjusted his game when he went to Denver and I think he’ll do the same now. It could mean his stat categories get switched around a little, but it should all add up to similar fantasy value.

Carmelo Anthony’s scoring could see a small bump, although I don’t think it’ll be enough to alter his fantasy value drastically.

Rodney Stuckey? No way, not this year. However, next year he’ll be the guy that everyone talks about all summer and then someone in your draft will go temporarily insane and take him in the 3rd round. So, that’ll be fun to watch.

Antonio McDyess? Is he still planning on retiring? If not, can we sign a petition to get him to?

More fantasy implications of the trade:

The Pulse
Sarge on Dropping Dimes (or if you prefer, Sarge on Sports Illustrated)
Empty the Bench
2nd Round Reach
Points in the Paint

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