Allen Iverson: Next to be Traded?

As a summa cum laude economics graduate from a school viewed as being in a group of schools that are cousins to the Ivy League Schools, I am qualified to grade the Nuggets in Economics. As of now, unless they improve what they are doing, I give them an F. For details, see the topic titled "Nuggets Fail Economics, Which will Cost Them Dearly."

If economics bores you to death, so you are not interested in details, I can sum it up by using an analogy.

I decide I want to make money from a hot restaurant franchise, a restaurant that is so popular that almost all franchise owners make a nice profit even in a down economy, so I decide to buy a franchise license and build a new restaurant, but then 18-24 months later in a down economy I decide I went hog wild with my money and I decide to sell. If this is what I do, I am going to take an unnecessary, big, big loss. Because I will have paid big acquisition bucks for the franchise and to get the building built, but I will not have waited long enough for my particular restaurant to become popular.

That's roughly what the Nuggets are doing. Outside of a depression, its spelled d-u-m-b, and it rhymes with rum.

Had the Nuggets not done this, there would have by next year if not sooner been more Artests interested in playing in Denver at a bargain.

Even more so than the most popular, successful restaurants, sports teams are well equipped to survive and prosper to some extent even in bad economies. For this reason, you don't see other owners destructing their teams at this time due to the poor economic conditions at this time. Sports franchises are generally still profitable in poor economies. So the Nuggets can not be excused for what they are doing by referencing the bad economy.

Especially since Denver for the last 50 years has been one of the most successful local economies in North America, and is right now one of a relatively small number of areas that are still gaining a good number of jobs from month to month! So there is no excuse for this panicking.

Mr. Kroenke should clearly be selling the team outright rather than be doing what it looks like he is doing.

Anything more than a 5% cut but less than an 7.5% cut in payroll is a D or D- grade. Anything more than an 8% cut in payroll is an F.

 

A nice little article from the desk of my man David Friedman, someone I have had vicious fights with about C Anthony in the past, but who everyone respects because of the sheer volume of his wrtings if not for anything else. Over the last year, he has come to understand the Nuggets much better than he did before. And in this important article, he has it dead on correct regarding the Nuggets. I mean, he hits it into the parking lot this time lol.

Thanks DF.

Camby Deal Signals The Beginning of the End of the Iverson Era in Denver

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>Any Denver fans who entertained notions that Carmelo Anthony and Allen Iverson would ever lead the Nuggets to playoff glory received a very rude awakening when Nuggets management "traded" starting center Marcus Camby to the L.A. Clippers for the right to swap second round draft picks in 2010. Camby is 34 years old but he is still a highly productive player: he won the 2007 Defensive Player of the Year Award and he has led the NBA in blocked shots the past three seasons and four times overall during his 12 year career. Last season, Camby averaged a career-high 13.1 rpg to rank second in the league. He has been selected to the All-Defensive Team for four straight seasons, including First Team nods in 2007 and 2008.

Contending teams do not simply give away a valuable asset like Camby--and that is precisely the point: the Nuggets are not a contending team and their management is painfully aware of that fact. Much like the Memphis Grizzlies got rid of Pau Gasol to clear salary cap space and essentially hit the "reboot" button, getting rid of Camby was the first step in what will soon be a total makeover of Denver's roster. Iverson will either be traded this season or allowed to walk in 2009 when his contract ends, thus freeing up even more salary cap space. The Nuggets are deep into luxury tax territory--paying a dollar for dollar penalty for exceeding the salary cap--and that is the last place a team wants to be when it cannot even get out of the first round, let alone meaningfully contend for a title.

From an intellectual/economic standpoint it is very easy to figure out what the Nuggets are doing--but this still has to be hard for Denver fans to accept, particularly those who have spent a lot of money on season tickets. Without Camby anchoring the paint there is a good chance that the Nuggets won't even make the playoffs in 2008-09 and even though Denver will soon have money to spend there is no guarantee that when the dust settles the new look roster will be substantially better than the recent Denver teams have been.

It seems like half of the teams in the NBA are clinging to the pipe dream that if they clear enough salary cap space that they will be able to sign LeBron James or Dwyane Wade in a couple years; meanwhile, these teams are intent on spending as little as they can until that time, essentially writing off this season. There is not much that the league can do about this now but an economic system that encourages teams to not spend money--and thus field a mediocre or worse product--while hoping to hit the "jackpot" and sign a big-time player is not good or efficient. Moreover, these teams are going to have a lot of explaining to do if they subject their fans to 82 games of bad basketball and then fail to sign a franchise player with all of the money that they have sitting around.

As for the Clippers, adding Camby and free agent Baron Davis goes a long way toward making up for the loss of Elton Brand. In fact, since Brand only played eight games last year, the Clippers could significantly improve on their 23-59 record if Camby and Davis both stay healthy.</div>

Source

 

If Iverson gets traded it will probably be for Mike Bibby as ridiculous at that sounds. If you remember Iverson couldnt even net the Sixers what they wanted.