The Sports Truth

Here are the winners and losers from the Allen Iverson trade:

Winners: Denver, for obvious reasons. The Nuggets found a solution to their loss of Carmelo Anthony for 15 games and they upgraded from Earl Boykins. The Atlantic Division, because the other four teams will now get easy wins against a Philadephia squad that actually wants to lose.

Losers: Greg Oden, who could end up in Philly now. Philadelphia, which got nothing and still has to watch Chris Webber drag his leg around the court. Utah, which was going to have a chance to extend its lead deu to the Carmelo Anthony suspension, and now will be battling a team with ‘Melo and A.I. come February and March.

On to this week’s Sports Truth Power Rankings…

[Current ranking, followed by last week’s ranking in parentheses, followed by team record]

1. (1) Phoenix (18-6). Okay, we know they are pretty good, but the Phoenix Suns‘ field goal percentage is 49.17 percent. And they shoot 82 percent from the line. They say you have to make shots to score points, but this is off the charts.
2. (2) San Antonio (19-6). Only two teams have a winning differential margin of over five points per game: Phoenix at 6.9 and the Spurs with a whopping 9.7 points per game difference. The Suns may score a ton of points, but the Spurs are blowing teams out.
3. (4) Utah (18-7). One-point losses to the Knicks and Kings in the past week are not inspiring. San Antonio does not lose games like that. And now their closest competition acquired Allen Iverson. They better step it up.
4. (3) Dallas (18-7). They’ve rebounded from the blowout loss in Utah with four straight wins.
5. (5) Detroit (15-8). One of only three teams with winning road records in the East (Boston and Orlando). As predicted, they’ll have to hold off Cleveland and Chicago all season long.
6. (9) L.A. Lakers (16-9). Still solid, but they have lost three out of four without Odom and their only win came when Kobe scored 53.
7. (7) Chicago (15-10). Winners of 12 out of their last 13 and are only one game behind Detroit in the Central division.
8. (6) Houston (15-9). Yao Ming is averaging 34 and 12 over their last five, but they are only 2-3 in those games.
9. (8) Denver (14-9). I was prepared to drop the Nuggets into the middle of the pack after the Celtics’ domination over them on Friday night and the loss of ‘Melo for 15 games, but then they got Allen Iverson for virtually nothing. I get the feeling they will begin to move up in these rankings. By they way, great move by Denver.
10. (10) Orlando (16-10). 4-6 this month, back-to-back losses against Toronto and Charlotte and a team that desperately needs a week off. Our once-promising team is starting to slide.
11. (11) Cleveland (14-9). Can’t win on the road (3-7), need to get a spark from Larry Hughes. They actually lost to Orlando when the Magic started Tevor Ariza, Tony Battie and Carlos Arroyo… that’s not good.
12. (16) Washington (12-12). The Wiz are playing decent basketball of late, but losing to a shorthanded Denver squad the other night was not pretty. Gilbert Arenas, Caron Butler and Antawn Jamison were a miserable 29-for-75 in that game.
13. (14) Indiana (13-13). Are they really anything more than a .500 team? I don’t think so, but in the East that means playoffs.
14. (12) Golden State (12-14). Another team who can’t win on the road (1-9). I really love the young players on this team. Is there any chance someone would take Baron Davis off their hands? Isiah, you listening?
15. (13) Minnesota (10-11). Knocked off a few teams to prove they aren’t that bad, but once it became clear they were not getting Iverson, team lost back-to-back games and will now begin trying to unload Kevin Garnett (right).
16. (21) Boston (10-13). The talent is there, but they still need to play consistently well against better teams. They also need to do a better job of finishing games.
17. (19) Miami (11-13). Heat would actually make the playoffs if the season ended today. You know Shaq is just taking his time right now. I’d hate to be the top seed that gets stuck with this eight seed if Shaq is healthy.
18. (25) Portland (11-14). Showed some signs of life this week with a four-game winning streak. We’ll see if they can keep it up.
19. (18) Sacramento (10-13). Kings have just two wins in the month of December. They are just a mediocre team that looks to be lottery-bound.
20. (15) L.A. Clippers (10-13). For Elton Brand’s sake, I hope Livingston turns out to be one hell of a player. The Clips could have had Iverson if they included Livington in the deal.
21. (22) Milwaukee (10-14). They are 5-4 this month, which gives them a chance in the East.
22. (20) New Jersey (10-14). That was a huge win over Golden State thanks to Nenad Kristic’s 26 and 14. Nets schedule gets really tough over the next month.
23. (17) Toronto (10-15). Found a way to beat New Jersey and Golden State without Chris Bosh, but we’ll see how long that lasts.
24. (24) Seattle (10-16). Lost five straight on the road: Four against the East and one against Memphis. That says it all, this is not a good team.
25. (23) New Orleans/Oklahoma City (10-13). 2-9 in last 11 without Peja and West.
26. (26) Atlanta (9-14). Joe Johnson (right) is back, but they won’t win many games the rest of the month against a really tough schedule.
27. (27) New York (10-17). Isiah Thomas is entering the Ron Artest-crazy category. Other than that, this team just flat out sucks and they don’t care.
28. (28) Charlotte (6-17). Win over Orlando was impressive and Sean May is playing great ball.
29. (30) Memphis (6-19). Pau Gasol says he is ready to return, but I think they should hold him out another month. If they play .500 ball with him, the will really screw up their draft position.
30. (29) Philadelphia (5-18). They have officially given up and Billy King is foolish. Sad part is, they got two first rounders for Iverson, but those picks will come really late in the round (Denver and Dallas). In addition, their own first round pick is lost if it isn’t in the top 15. In other words, don’t win too many games.

Posted in NBA