Stop Blaming Allen Iverson For the Nugget's 4-1 Loss to the Spurs

This is the Nuggets 1 response to the Hollinger ESPN evaluation and prediction for Allen Iverson.

Hollinger seems to see a tortured soul everywhere. Iverson is many things, but a tortured soul he is not. He is consistent in this views and comfortable in his skin. No Mr. ESPN, there isn't going to be any melodramatic conflict played out in Iverson's mind about whether he should continue to play just like he did in Philly. Philly is history. For those who would listen, he has stated in several post trade interviews that his overwhelming goal is to win a Championship, and he is willing to make any and all adjustments in his game necessary to do so. And he proved last season that he actually can and will make those adjustments. Of course, what those adjustments are going to be are not all or even mainly going to be decided by Iverson, but will be decided by the coaching staff of the Nuggets. And that is where the problem lies.

The reason Iverson ramped it up in the playoffs is that he was given a total green light to do so by George Karl, who wanted to avoid the traditional smothering of the Nuggets by the endless double and occasional triple teaming of Melo. Karl considers Iverson to be the ultimate floor general, even though the Coach has been like a mule with respect to the obvious strategy of playing Iverson at the point and avoiding the defensive liability of a too small and/or a defensively challenged backcourt when Iverson is at the 2. Karl did not produce backups ready to contribute in the playoffs. In fact, he all but butchered the potential of the second stringers. So with no faith in the backups, and having told Melo to worry more about defense and rebounding, he only had A.I. left to provide the winning scoring margins. That strategy was an utter failure.

As with too many of the Coach's strategies, it was too simplistic a strategy, as Popovich and the Spurs were more than smart enough to shift their main defensive harassment efforts over to Iverson. They knew that Melo did not have the complete green light offensively that Dirk Nowitzki, Kobe Bryant and A.I. had, and they adjusted accordingly. That's just what you would expect from one of the best coaches in the NBA, Greg Popovich, a man who deserves Championships if there ever was one.

With respect to threes, I will agree that Iverson took a few too many threes. It was mostly because the Nuggets were starved for three-point shooting and, later in games, because he became too tired for a lot of charges to the hoop.

Hollinger at ESPN seems amazed by the large drop in Iverson's player efficiency rating, and implies that all of a sudden Iverson may be too old to be the star player that he has been. What is there to be amazed about? Iverson is playing with Carmelo Anthony for god's sake. And for those who would listen, he has stated exactly what he is about these days, and it isn't about maximizing his player efficiency rating. He's about working with Melo and the more dubious components of the Nugget's organization in the quest for the ring, and making any adjustments that are obvious, and those that he is specifically called upon to make by the coaches and, perhaps, by Melo.

And while it is obvious that Iverson is no longer a spring chicken, it's over the top to fear that he is no longer capable of the lightning cross cuts and charges through holes he is famous for. If he is now 90% or 95% as fast as he was 10 years ago, that's still plenty fast enough for the job at hand. You just have to avoid the trap that Karl fell into, which is expecting that he can play 45 minutes a game and be dribbling the ball on almost every damn play. As long as you don't wear him out, A.I. remains one of the top 3 or 4 backcourt weapons in the NBA.

Karl wore him out, plain and simple.