Fast Break: Iverson Sprung From Shooting Guard Prison

Editorial Note: A Fast Break is a short and quick preview of upcoming topics that will be explored and proved in full in regular reports. Fast Breaks are especially useful when major news breaks.

I'm not sure about the rest of my side of the never ending Iverson debate, which is the side that does not make sweeping declarations that "Iverson can not play point guard" or "Iverson hurts his team at shooting guard" or "Iverson hurts his team regardless of position." But all I, as someone who goes wherever the evidence leads but who avoids getting carried away, ever wanted was for the Nuggets to try to see if they would have a more efficient offense if they stopped thinking of him as a 2-guard and started to think of him as a point guard.

It always seemed very, very likely to me that the Nuggets would become a much more efficient offense if they did that, provided, of course, that Iverson passed a little more and shot a little less after being designated the point guard.

Because regardless of what he is or isn't, the Nuggets were being held back by a virtual abandonment of the point guard concept with the lineup they were actually running for the bulk of the time: Carter at point guard and Iverson at shooting guard. I say "abandonment" because their strategy was so poor and inexplicable that it was an abandonment of the point guard concept itself for all practical purposes.

In other words, all I and most of my side wanted really was a big reduction in what I called the two point guard offense (Iverson and Carter). Others called that the "midget offense" because of it's really bad effect on perimeter defending. Even George Karl agreed that that lineup was not very useful in the playoffs. Does it sound very sensible to you to have a two point guard offense? I hope not, yet that's what the supposedly professional George Karl and the Denver Nuggets were running, because Iverson is obviously not a pure 2-guard, and was always playing both guard positions at once to one extent or another.

To be very clear in case someone tries to confuse or twist things: my side wanted a lot fewer minutes with Iverson and a point guard (specifically and especially Carter) out there at the same time.

And we never got it. Karl and the Nuggets refused to ever even try it let alone fully adopt it. Which was definitely asinine and a huge waste of money and even a big hit on the Nuggets franchise over the next 3-5 years or so.

Well guess what folks. Our side finally gets what it wanted. We had to see Iverson removed from the overly conservative, stubborn and cynical (or do they just not think very well) Nuggets to get it, but it looks like we finally have what we wanted now. We are going to see Iverson for more minutes without a traditional point guard at the same time than with one.

So now we get to see if Iverson is worse for his team while being designated as the point guard compared to while being designated shooting guard, as a surprisingly large and fierce minority have claimed will be true. We get to find out. We get a hearing so to speak.

So I, for one, am going into my 2nd straight day of celebration.

We have Iverson at the one:

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/depth