DrGonzo wrote:Iverson was only getting 17 minutes per game because he was playing badly and not helping the team whatsoever.
Well, who was playing well for the Pistons then? Nobody, as it was told already.
zanshadow wrote:He as a replacement for Billups was a total failure, nothing good at ALL for Detroit.
Sure. He couldn't have succeeded as a replacement for Billups, because he's nothing like Billups as a player. However, Detroit didn't get him because they wanted a replacement for Billups, but because they wanted to free up $22 million in cap room.
zanshadow wrote:Now it's evident, that Denver was better off without AI so was Detroit.
Someone told this too, not without AI, but with Billups, that's the difference. Denver needed a real point guard since Miller was traded to the 76ers, they got Billups and they are playing better, nothing strange in that. And as for the Pistons, when Iverson was injured, they played as badly as with him.
zanshadow wrote: It's almost proven that he's a team chemistry killer.
Again, not AI killed the chemistry, but lack of Billups. Chauncey was a good buddy of Pistons' players and the main mental leader.
DrGonzo wrote: However with 82 games.com showing iverson being in instead of mcdyess with their same 4 players ..their turnover rates went up, their rebounding went down.
Because Iverson is not a power forward who gets a lot of rebounds and McDyess is not a ball handler for the Pistons, so has less turnovers? I think comparisons like this only make sense if you take players from the same or at least similar positions who are meant to do basicly the same things on the court.
However, I agree with you that not going to practice isn't right since he's being paid lots of money to do just that.
zanshadow wrote:isn't super talented HOF caliber player supposed to help them out of a funk?
Of course he is. All you need to do is use him properly and make him be effective. The Pistons haven't done it and we all know the results.
You can now say that the Pistons are such a team which doesn't use the style that AI plays, so offense dominated by one player. But can you remember what were they playing when AI was already "injured"? I mean those games when Rip had about 10 apg. They did exactly that. Rip was handling the ball all the time, every play had to go through Rip. They didn't care that's not Rip's play, he wasn't effective in that and was a turnover-producing machine when playing like this. The point is, that's the style AI's best at. When AI was a role player, they were losing game after game although AI was doing what he was told to do. They didn't want to let him dominate the offense, handle that ball, which would automatically make him far better and produce way more good things for the Pistons, although they knew AI's been playing like this all his career and can do it very well. But they happily gave such role to Rip, whose play is run through the screens and so on, catch and shoot. Rip was in many games terrible when having such a role on the court, scoring 20 points on 8/25 FGs, dishing 10 assists and 8 turnovers. The Pistons didn't mind.