A week in and the NBA has its first
big trade of the season, with Allen Iverson going to Detroit and Chauncey Billups and Antonio McDyess(who may be on his way back to Detroit in 30 days) heading to Denver.
The contract situations here are very different. Iverson will be a free agent after this year, along with his new teammate Rasheed Wallace, giving Detroit the chance to make some noise next offseason if this experiment doesn't work. It also makes room for Rodney Stuckey next year, which could be big. Meanwhile, Billups is under contract through 2011, and Denver now has a pretty substantial chunk of money tied up with their big 4(about $160 million). I do think Billups is the best player acquired in the trade, personally, but unless Denver thinks he's the missing championship piece, I don't really get the move from their perspective.
