LOL you obviously don't follow the Pistons. Billups leadership has been questioned ever since Ben Wallace left. Billups heart has been questioned for some time. Say what you want about Iverson, but no one questions his effort on the court like they did Billups. Also who are these knuckleheads? Outside of Rasheed I can't think of one. How were the Pistons fine? The past 3 years they lost to teams with star scorers (Wade, Lebron, Pierce) Billups dissapeared in the 4th quarter last year in game 6, and was non existent against Cleveland or Miami. Billups also struggled defensively against quick guards getting outplayed by Rondo, Williams and a grown man named booby. Now Billups is asked to guard guys like Parker, Paul, and Devon Williams? Billups isn't a play maker or a creator. Billups benefited from the fact that Detroit had a whole team of good jump shooters he could dish to. Billups was the right guy for Detroit in what they wanted to do. Ball control offense and no turnovers. Denver won't be able to run up and down the court and score in transition. Billups was also going to block the growth of Stuckey. With Iverson, Detroit can now play Stuckey and Iverson in the back court, with Hamilton at SF and become a faster team that can get easy baskets. Hamilton is the perfect player to play along side Iverson. Hamilton does his best work without the ball. With his constant movement and Iverson's ability to penetrate and draw defenders, Hamilton will get lots of open looks.
Iverson is now 33 and knows this is his last shot at a ring. I believe he'll be more focused then he was under Larry Brown. He showed in Denver he is willing to defer and pass the ball. What also gets overlooked is the fact he draws nearly 10 free throws per game. That is double the amount Billups draws, and Billups shoots all the techs and has the ball in late game fouling situations. Those fouls mean foul trouble for opponents bigs.
