A fan favorite in the TTL, unnamed sources have reported that a deal has been reached sending Allen Iverson to the Detroit Pistons for Chauncey Billups and Antonio McDyess. Overall, I’d have to say I’m pretty pleased with this trade.

I think Iverson really liked playing in Denver, and he had one of his best overall years last year. But now he is going to a really solid team. Tayshaun Prince, Richard Hamilton, and Rasheed Wallace have played together forever and have great chemistry. But though they perenially have a great regular season, I don’t think too many people outside of Detroit really believed they could win a championship. Clearly they had to shake things up, and I’m sure this decision was a tough one.

Can Iverson fit in with this squad? For sure, I think a trade so early in the season is better than a last-minute trade like the one that landed him in Denver. But I don’t think it will be that hard for him to fit in. This will be a better team than any he’s ever played on, including the scrappy team that went to the Finals in 2001. I think they’ll find a way to make it work.

From a fantasy perspective, I don’t think this will really affect Iverson’s performance. He’s a stud, and there’s no changing that. I think Billups will have a harder time adjusting in Denver. Carmelo Anthony will likely see an increase in scoring. This could boost him to close to 30 PPG. It will be interesting to see what happens, but I don’t really see Denver as that much better off.

What do you think? Post your thoughts in the comments.

Special shout out to PennyCCW over at YouTube. He’s put together an amazing collection of Iverson videos. Here’s one of them from Iverson’s second game as a Nugget…