The Wrong Answer?

Detroit’s President of Basketball Operations Joe Dumars today announced they’d be shutting down their high-maintenance star Allen Iverson for the rest of the season, effectively ending the former MVP’s stay in the Motor City with the team having no intention of extending his contract. But A.I.s tumultuous lone season in Detroit and the acrimonious circumstances in which Iverson has effectively left could mean that the star could practically be retiring himself.

For years, Detroit have been the ultimate 5-guy team. They made six conference title games from 2003-2008 including a title in 2004. They sent an unprecedented four starters to the All-star game in 2006. They had numerous stars, and they definitely had egos, but they didn’t have a Kobe Bryant, a Kevin Garnett, a Lebron James; instead their roster was packed with talent and they were a great team.

Only a season removed from a 59 win campaign, and the team has struggled ever since that Billups/Iverson trade. It was clearly a cost-cutting procedure from the Pistons who will see a huge number lifted when Iverson comes off the books this offseason and the drop in performance perhaps can be expected after competing at such a high level for so long, but this season has been about one guy, A.I.

The Pistons will keep on going, they’re a strong franchise. This little episode will be irrelevant come next season, but this, for me, has spoken volumes about A.I. He’s always been relatively selfish with the ball, but he’s a scorer, one of the best the league has ever seen. He’s won an MVP award, something even Kobe hadn’t done until last year. But his style of play means the team needs to revolve around him, and in the past few years the teams he has been on haven’t seemed to be able to get over the hump.

Much was made of the prospect of A.I. teaming up with Carmelo in Denver back in 2006. Anthony would be given another superstar beside him, providing even more opportunities for himself and the team would thrive, yes? Well they did put up numbers, the two led the league in scoring while even dropping a ridiculous 168 on the Sonics in 2008. But while they made the playoffs, they recorded just one postseason win in two years. Chemistry was a problem and while they could score at will potentially, they were never seen as a real contender. 50 wins may have been impressive, but an 8th seed and a 1st round sweep from the 57 win Lakers meant another season that counted for nothing.

And so to this season, the Billups trade and look at the Nuggets now. There may be external factors such as perhaps the standard being slightly lower in the West and the strange positive of losing Marcus Camby but they already have 50 wins. They have a 2 game cushion in the race for the no.2 seed and while I have often been critical of Billups in the past for not being consistent enough, his style has suited that Nuggets team a lot better. A style that is quite frankly, a lot less selfish than A.I.

Over in Detroit we have a team 3 games under 500. Iverson has had his injury problems but that team has not been better by having him in the line-up. By March it was becoming apparent that Rip Hamilton was the much more effective option starting, and it wasn’t music to A.I’s ears.

It’s tough to find a bigger contrast between two guys who were in essence competing for the same spot. Previously the notion of Hamilton coming off the bench has been brought up and while Hamilton has admitted he’d much rather start, he’s accepted that if that really is the best thing for the team, then he’s fine with it. A.I? His reaction to, by his standards, a paltry 18 minutes on Wednesday was “”I’d rather retire before I do this again. I can’t be effective playing this way. I’m not used to it. It’s tough for me both mentally and physically.” He went on to lament his lack of full fitness but retire? Because he can’t come off the bench?

Iverson needs to face facts, he’s 33, had a superb career but ultimately is still trophy-less with 1 finals appearance in 2001. He is no longer going to be able to play on a team and be “the guy”. There were talks of him reuniting with Larry Brown in Charlotte next season but after this episode and Charlotte making a playoff push with a young and talented, deep roster, would you really want him going in there and being “the guy”? Add Iverson as a willing sixth man in Charlotte and that team could really push on, but add him in the way he is now and you’d have to say that team would probably suffer.

If A.I. really loves basketball and not just himself, he’ll realise it’s time to become part of the supporting cast. He’s had teams built around him, like Lebron now he had the roster tailored to him once upon a time in Philly. His time as the superstar is gone, and unfortunately that may be too much to bear for him.

And really, it shouldn’t be. The tragedy is, Iverson could become a much more effective player if he was willing to accept the new role. Look around the league at some of the sixth men or role players that are talented enough to be a starter, but are most efficient in that role; Jason Terry, Barbosa, Ginobili, Kirilenko (well, in theory), Nate Robinson, previously Rip Hamilton.

There are plenty of veteran teams that would love to add a guy of his ability onto their squad and it could be a huge improvement. But if things stay as they are, he might as well retire now, and I think that’s a strong possibility. Iverson has always felt the need to be the guy, the superstar, the face of brands and now that time has pretty much come to an end, now he can’t call himself the best, he may well just decide to call it a day. What’s more important, the game or his pride?

Ok… Now someone needs to get fired for this…

What’s the shortest ever tenure for a Head Coach?

Ok, obviously in the salary cap era of big contracts, big big contracts, once you’ve hired a coach you’ve made a commitment financially as well as personally, but has there ever been an appointment like Josh McDaniels.

The Denver Broncos were an 8-8 team last year, but an 8-8 team with a lot of upside. Take away those injuries, add a couple of players to that defense and you have a team that could concievably go to the title game. Ok, bring in a new coach to provide a spark, bring some fresh air. Josh McDaniels? Forget the fresh air, he’s been like a wrecking ball flying through this organisation.

Josh McDaniels came into a team that managed to lose their division to a team that was 4-8 in Week 13, but was there a more promising team in the NFL with a head coaching vacancy?  (Indy doesn’t count, retirement) Surely this is a Head Coaches dream. Teams would kill to have a settled offense like the Broncos. Cutler coming off a season that fully established him as a perennial Pro-Bowl, elite QB. Brandon Marshall putting in a case for being the best WR in the NFL, let alone top 3 or 5. A talent in Eddie Royal and a veteran in Stokely, that passing attack was just lethal last year. Think about it now, top 5 QBs that you would want on your team: Brady, Manning, Roethlisberger, Cutler and perhaps Rivers or Romo at a stretch. He had over 4,500 yards through the air. I really don’t buy the temperamental thing, he’s not T.O.  All that let them down was a sub-par defense and a injury list that took outno less than seven running backs. Seven. It was so bad, they had to go find Tatum Bell, working in a Denver mall at a cell-phone kiosk. Regardless, this is a team that didn’t need turning around, it needed building on.

I’ve briefly spoken about this before, but now it’s actually happened, it’s hitting home just how ludicrous this situation is. It’s absolute sheer arrogance on the part of McDaniels, there’s no other explanation for it, just who the hell does he think he is?

He has no experience, of anything. He’s done nothing, he’s 32. He may have risen up the ranks of the Patriots to become Bill Belicheck’s offensive co-ordinator, but I’m sorry, since when did that make you God’s gift to coaching? Lets have a look at Belicheck’s other protegees, Crennel? Fired, Mangini? Fired and now in Cleveland, Charlie Weis? go ask Notre Dame fans about 15 losses in two years. What exactly gives him the right to stroll into an organisation like Denver and decide that every player is expendable. Kansas? Maybe, Detroit? Almost certainly, blow it up, but why on earth would you screw with Denver’s franchise player. It’s hard enough to find a QB that will guarantee you points like Cutler will, let alone have one that’s settled, why would you be so damn arrogant as to feel he’s not as good as “your guy”. That guy being Tom Brady’s backup until he had a good year last year, for the Patriots of all teams, who he’d learnt with for a few years.

My feelings on the whole Cassel situation are known, Denver had absolutely no reason to be involved, Cassel was in no way an upgrade, and they weren’t getting much else to improve other areas. But that fell flat, leaving McDaniels with some serious work to do. He’d gone out on a limb to get his own guy at the potential expense of the entire franchise and it had seriously backfired. Now the team’s biggest strength is pissed, and why wouldn’t you be? You’ve had a fantastic season, if anything the team held Cutler back, and they repay you by trying to trade you? No wait, this nobody has come in and tried to trade you for his own guy?

We knew Cutler would be slightly temperamental, not Phillip Rivers-style temperamental but he wasn’t going to take this lying down. At this point, if you’re McDaniels, you get on your knees and grovel. Ok, you had a connection with Cassel, you thought he’d be easiest to work with, but that didn’t happen. Now you do everything you can to make Cutler happy. You beg and console and reassure until he is happy. I mean, Cassel is now gone, Warner’s already locked up, who else is out there?

But no, rather than actually sort this out, we get awkward back and forths involving text messages and anything that doesn’t involve a face-to-face. Cutler gets more and more alienated and in the end, you trade him for Kyle Orton.

Kyle Orton, are you serious? Now I think this is actually a pretty good deal as it goes, but surely you can’t put a value on Cutler in the first place after the numbers he put up last season? The fact is, there is no way Denver should have gotten to a stage where they pretty much had to trade Cutler, a stage where people were actually guaranteeing Cutler would be gone by the draft, yet here we are. It’s just absolutely astounding. You may have gotten something in the picks, you can build for the future, but this isn’t Kansas City, you don’t need to stockpile them. Cutler was going to be that cornerstone of teh franchise for years to come. Think of all the guys that were touted as cornerstone guys, and how many have actually become them. If anything, I just think they’re lucky to have gotten such an amount in return.

Now I like Orton, I was really happy to see him progress and improve and not just be a weak link in Chicago. Unlike Rex, he actually progressed to a stage where he was a solid QB who could actually take the team down the field at times when they needed it. But Chicago had a great running game, and a great defense, like they always have. The pressure was everywhere else. At least with Cassel you would have been more confident he would be able to slot into that offense and put up some relative numbers. I mean that is the stage we’ve gotten to here, first we were talking about how Cassel was a gamble and a slight downgrade from Cutler in terms of being a sure thing. But now, it’s as if they’ve lost Cassel without ever having him, we’re comparing Orton to Cassel, and it’s even worse, he’s an even bigger gamble. I keep having to give myself a reality check here; “2 months ago, they had a promising settled offense with one of the top 5 passing attacks in the NFL. Now they have Kyle Orton?!”

I hate to rip on Kyle Orton, and who knows, he actually could suprise us, maybe the offense will change back to a run-first style, perhaps they could pick up Knowshon Moreno in the draft, shore up that line, then McDaniels would look like a genius, but this is now, and it looks like a catastrophe. He made this mess, and I expect him to be damn culpable come next season. Forget all this about Cutler being “temperamental”, the fact is they’ve gone from having a cornerstone franchise QB to Kyle Orton care-taking. Put it this way, would they have taken that deal before McDaniels turned up?