Joe, one of the reasons you felt Billups was expendable was because you were looking for ways to get young guard Rodney Stuckey more court time. But you already have one of the NBA's best shooting guards in Richard "Rip" Hamilton and an Olympian swingman in Tayshaun Prince.

Let's say that leaves 30 to 35 minutes per game for Iverson. How will he react to that? Sure, A.I. is currently saying the right things ("I'm going to be all right with it," Iverson said about reduced playing time), but do you really believe he can change? He's a competitive guy with, how can I say this nicely, more than enough self-confidence that he is likely to mope or pout if he's not always on the court.

Is a young coach like Michael Curry going to be able to handle the big ego of a disgruntled future Hall of Famer?

You do realize that Iverson is the same guy with the much-YouTubed rant about the importance, or lack thereof, of practice? While it is as funny as any bit Chris Rock has ever done, it wasn't meant to be.

We talkin' about practice. Not a game. Not a game. We talkin' about practice. Not a game. Not a game that I go out there and die for and play like it's my last. We talkin' about practice. Now how silly is that?

Mr. Dumars, you realize Iverson's a 6-foot gunslinger who has a point guard's size but a shooting guard's mentality? Yet the fact of the matter is that Iverson simply doesn't shoot the ball very well. He's a scorer, for sure, but he's made just 42.6 percent of his shots from the field during his career.

And you realize that he's a little guy that is not a spring chicken, right? Iverson, for all his faults, does play hard, but he has tremendous mileage on his 33-year-old body after driving with abandon to the hoop for 13 years as a pro.

Don't get me wrong, Iverson is a great player and is fun to watch. He can get hot and is a threat to score 40 points or more on any given night. But I just don't see how he can possibly make the Pistons a better team. There are five players per team on the court at a time, and Iverson simply needs the rock in his hands too much. It might work on a club without as many proven stars where he can be the unquestioned go-to guy. But the Pistons have a lineup filled with talented veterans.

It's hard to imagine Iverson thriving in Detroit.

Look at what happened with the the Philadelphia 76ers after he left, for instance. The Sixers were in a shambles when Iverson left, one of the truly terrible teams in the NBA. But they landed a true point guard in ex-Ute Andre Miller in the deal. Now Philly is a playoff contender in the East.

Expect the same in Denver. Billups is a team-first guy who will make the Nuggets, already a playoff team, better. Carmelo Anthony will get the ball more often and where he wants it now that he has Billups running the show.