Iverson + Scoring Teammates = Lottery!

Recently we saw the mega-deal of Denver and Philadelphia, with the Nuggets having to part with Andre Miller, Joe Smith and two 1st round draft picks in exchange for Allen Iverson. For Philadelphia, they are already in rebuilding mode and got rid of one of the most expensive contracts in the league, $40m over the next two years not including the rest of Iverson’s $18m salary this year. It’s a different story for Denver as they are hoping to build a championship team. With Iverson, they already have a loaded roster that includes the NBA’s leading scorer at the time of the trade, Carmelo Anthony, plus JR Smith and Marcus Camby. But the main question is, will it work out?

Let’s take a look at Iverson’s statistical history. In the last 10 seasons, only Webber (1 season), Glenn Robinson (1 season), Derrick Coleman (2 seasons) and Jerry Stackhouse (2 seasons) have been able to score more than 16ppg when they had AI with them on the team, with Coleman/Stackhouse doing it during Iverson’s 1st 2 seasons in the league. What happens now in Denver, wherein they currently have the 2 top scorers in the league, averaging more than 30ppg?

Iverson's Sidekicks

Season	Player	PPG	Player	PPG	Player	PPG
1997	Iverson	23.5	Stackhouse	20.7	Coleman	18.1
1998	Iverson	22.0	Coleman	17.6	Stackhouse	16.0
1999	Iverson	26.8	Geiger	13.1	Ratliff	11.2
2000	Iverson	28.4	Kukoc	12.4	T. Hill	12.0
2001	Iverson	31.3	Ratliff	12.4	Mutombo	11.7
2002	Iverson	31.4	Coleman	15.1	Mckie	12.2
2003	Iverson	27.6	Van Horn	15.9	Snow	12.9
2004	Iverson	26.4	Robinson	16.6	K. Thomas	13.6
2005	Iverson	30.7	Webber	15.6	M. Jackson	12.0
2006	Iverson	33.0	Webber	20.2	Iguodala	12.3

Iverson had four (4) seasons wherein he had a teammate with enough talent to score more than 16 ppg alongside him. But quite amazingly, these are the seasons wherein Philadelphia completely missed the playoffs! The 76ers of the Iverson era has made the playoffs in the 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2005 seasons, completely missing all seasons highlighted in the table above. When Philadelphia made the finals back in 2001, AI’s scoring teammates with 10+ppg were Theo Ratliff (12.4 ppg), Dikembe Mutombo (11.7) and Aaron McKie (11.6).

With Anthony and JR Smith out for the extended period, we are seeing Iverson having to carry much of the Nuggets’ scoring load. Others to support him in the offense would be Marcus Camby and Earl Boykins. We’ll have to wait and see what will happen when Anthony and Smith returns from their suspensions. With Denver sitting at the 7th spot when the trade was finalized, with the lengthy suspensions, and the adjustments they have to make when Melo returns, Sixers President Billy King could look like the trade winner if the equation “Iverson + Scorers = Lottery!” holds true again...

Hans is an IT professional in Manila, Philippines and a long time fanatic of NBA and NBA statistics. He got hooked by playing NBA fantasy sports for the past 7 years, oftentimes being accused of cheating by his league-mates of exploiting system deficiencies. You can reach him through email at hansjuy@gmail.com.