Is AI the Answer?

(Boulder-CO) Let me start off by saying "sorry" for this post. I know I said that I wouldn't give into AI trade temptations again, but if anything I’m reading and hearing in abundance has truth to it the Nuggets are probably going to engineer a deal that lands big-fish Allen Iverson. Maybe even as early as this afternoon, seeing how as today makes Nene tradable along with a couple of other Nuggets too. But is the Answer going to make all the Nuggets questions disappear?

I have been crazed over all the AI talk! So many rumors have been thrown around it is enough to make your head spin, and that is just for the writers whose teams aren’t even involved! So, hopefully you can understand why I have been reluctant, yet still opinionated and even a touch bipolar, to make too many outlandish statements. But now that the Nuggets seem to be on the brink of the deal, I have had to really think about what could be in the cards for Denver with AI. I hate to say it, especially after I wrote, “To me, it just doesn’t seem like a fire the Nuggets should be playing with”, but I kind of like the idea. With my own stipulations mind you…

My stipulations are simple. Leave Marcus Camby, Andre Miller, and J.R. Smith out of it and let’s make a deal. If the Nuggets can trade Nene and any one or pair of either Joe Smith, Eduardo Najera, Earl Boykins, or DerMarr Johnson and a draft pick they should go ahead and pull the trigger. With that cast of characters some how producing Allen Iverson, the Nuggets look formidable with a starting five of Andre Miller, Allen Iverson, Marcus Camby, Reggie Evans, and of course Carmelo Anthony.

Now we are talking about bringing the young gun J.R. Smith in for either guard at anytime because either starting guard can run the point or shooting guard position (Andre does it all the time when Earl runs the show). It could also be good for the budding talent because he would have an amazing mentor in one of the best scorers in NBA history around him showing him a thing or two. If J.R. can just be a sponge and realize that AI is only going to have another three, maybe four years, in the league there is an unbelievable opportunity for him to grow and to emerge as one of the top scorers in the league at the peak age of 25.

Now calculate that we have a Yakhouba Diawara and Linas Kleiza, who can both play the two or three position, and depending on who got dealt in the deal, Jamal Sampson plus one. That’s nine deep, Nuggets fans, and I like that a lot.

The situation would take a masterful job by George Karl of arranging the right starters with the appropriate reserves, but as you can see by my updated and hypothetical roster it could work. That is, IF Allen Iverson can live up to his moniker and is truly “The Answer” to what will take the Nuggets over the hump of being a good team-to a great team because as I see it right now… They are not yet ready to bang with the Western Conference’s big boys.