The shakeup promised by Detroit Pistons president Joe Dumars after last season's Eastern Conference finals has materialized just two games into the new season.
The Pistons have reached an agreement in principle with the Denver Nuggets to acquire guard Allen Iverson in exchange for Detroit mainstays Chauncey Billups and Antonio McDyess, club sources told ESPN's Stephen A. Smith.
Young center Cheikh Samb, selected by the Los Angeles Lakers for the Pistons with the 51st overall pick in the 2006 draft, will also be going to Denver in the deal, reports ESPN The Magazine's Ric Bucher.
The trade has not been finalized, but sources close to the process told ESPN.com that a trade call with the league office is forthcoming to make the deal official later Monday.
Dumars put the entire Pistons roster on notice after they lost to Boston in the East finals, saying that there "are no sacred cows" on his team and vowing to consider trading anyone -- even a major contributor to the Pistons' 2004 title run like Billups -- in addition to firing coach Flip Saunders and replacing Saunders with the untested Michael Curry.
The Pistons could not find a workable deal over the summer, but it emerged then that Billups -- MVP of the 2004 Finals -- was the most likely Piston to be dealt.
With Denver's desire to acquire a dependable point known throughout the league as well, Dumars has moved quickly to strike this deal with the Nuggets, who acquired Iverson from Philadelphia shortly before Christmas in 2006 but failed in two attempts to get out of the first round with a three-man core of Iverson, Carmelo Anthony and Marcus Camby.
Camby was jettisoned to the Los Angeles Clippers in a straight salary dump in July for luxury-tax purposes. After playing sparingly in the preseason, Iverson was stripped of his captaincy last week and averaged just over 13 shots per game as the Nuggets opened with a 1-2 mark.
The Nuggets will be hoping now that the homecoming Billups, a Denver native who starred collegiately at the University of Colorado, meshes better with Anthony, given that he's more of a natural point guard than Iverson. Yet there is some risk for the Nuggets, since Billups is 32 and has three more seasons left on his deal after this one, with the four years totaling in excess of $50 million.
The Pistons, meanwhile, will undoubtedly contend that their risks are mitigated by the fact that Iverson, who turned 33 in June, is in the final year of his contract at $20.8 million.
Dumars loves to gamble on players who possess the sort of pluses and minuses Iverson does, as seen with the trade-deadline acquisition of Rasheed Wallace in 2004 which spurred Detroit to its first championship since Dumars was playing in 1990. If this gamble doesn't work, swapping Billups for Iverson would give Detroit financial flexibility to pursue a more aggressive makeover next summer, with the highly regarded Rodney Stuckey staying put as the long-term cornerstone of the Pistons' backcourt.
Marc Stein is the senior NBA writer for ESPN.com.
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The Pistons have reached an agreement in principle with the Denver Nuggets to acquire guard Allen Iverson in exchange for Detroit mainstays Chauncey Billups and Antonio McDyess, club sources told ESPN's Stephen A. Smith.
Young center Cheikh Samb, selected by the Los Angeles Lakers for the Pistons with the 51st overall pick in the 2006 draft, will also be going to Denver in the deal, reports ESPN The Magazine's Ric Bucher.
The trade has not been finalized, but sources close to the process told ESPN.com that a trade call with the league office is forthcoming to make the deal official later Monday.
Dumars put the entire Pistons roster on notice after they lost to Boston in the East finals, saying that there "are no sacred cows" on his team and vowing to consider trading anyone -- even a major contributor to the Pistons' 2004 title run like Billups -- in addition to firing coach Flip Saunders and replacing Saunders with the untested Michael Curry.
The Pistons could not find a workable deal over the summer, but it emerged then that Billups -- MVP of the 2004 Finals -- was the most likely Piston to be dealt.
With Denver's desire to acquire a dependable point known throughout the league as well, Dumars has moved quickly to strike this deal with the Nuggets, who acquired Iverson from Philadelphia shortly before Christmas in 2006 but failed in two attempts to get out of the first round with a three-man core of Iverson, Carmelo Anthony and Marcus Camby.
Camby was jettisoned to the Los Angeles Clippers in a straight salary dump in July for luxury-tax purposes. After playing sparingly in the preseason, Iverson was stripped of his captaincy last week and averaged just over 13 shots per game as the Nuggets opened with a 1-2 mark.
The Nuggets will be hoping now that the homecoming Billups, a Denver native who starred collegiately at the University of Colorado, meshes better with Anthony, given that he's more of a natural point guard than Iverson. Yet there is some risk for the Nuggets, since Billups is 32 and has three more seasons left on his deal after this one, with the four years totaling in excess of $50 million.
The Pistons, meanwhile, will undoubtedly contend that their risks are mitigated by the fact that Iverson, who turned 33 in June, is in the final year of his contract at $20.8 million.
Dumars loves to gamble on players who possess the sort of pluses and minuses Iverson does, as seen with the trade-deadline acquisition of Rasheed Wallace in 2004 which spurred Detroit to its first championship since Dumars was playing in 1990. If this gamble doesn't work, swapping Billups for Iverson would give Detroit financial flexibility to pursue a more aggressive makeover next summer, with the highly regarded Rodney Stuckey staying put as the long-term cornerstone of the Pistons' backcourt.
Marc Stein is the senior NBA writer for ESPN.com.
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McDyess was in the trade too?? Fuck! I have some good money on Detroit to win the East and the NBA title, and I hate the bet now. I thought it was a bad trade and was upset about it when it was just Billups for AI, and now I find it they gave up another starter also?? Terrible trade for Detroit. AI is good, but those two players have so much more value than him.
I love Stuckey and I think Maxiell can be a good starter in the league, but this team was better before the trade.
I love Stuckey and I think Maxiell can be a good starter in the league, but this team was better before the trade.
