I just can’t believe in anything that Denver does.  Year after year, regardless of the composition of their roster, they’re the same team; they’ll play well enough to convince themselves and some others that they can make noise in the playoffs.  But they can’t, and they don’t.  This is like their fifth or sixth date now, and they still haven’t even copped a feel.  Me, I need to know what’s what by the end of the second date, or I’m likely to blow up the roster and rebuild around my franchise player (that’s me).  I mean, you can work the trade market, or try to spend your way to the promised land (if you have the cap space), but if the foundation isn’t there, free agency is more likely to give you VD than a championship banner.

Moves like the (swiftly aging) Billups acquisition, picking J.R. Smith off the clearance rack, Linas Kleiza from the end of the first round of the draft, Nene from Sloan Ket… (Umm, can you  make cancer jokes once a guy is totally healthy and finally playing up to his contract?  Yes?  No?  I’ll go with no).  Whatever, these are nips and tucks, injections, the occasional facelift.  But basketball is a top-down business: what happens on the floor is a near-perfect distillation of the organization.  They’ve made some good moves, but too many bad moves, they’re riding a coach whose defensive mastermind/player’s coach reputation was refuted two teams ago.  And their franchise player, Carmelo Anthony, is a star who’s jab-stepped at greatness, but never taken the plunge—it’s been seven years now.

I tell you, if the Nuggets were to win the championship this year (impossible) and I were in Denver to watch the parade, I would probably still stand there in the crowd arms crossed saying, “I don’t believe in this team.  I just don’t see it happening.”  Maybe I’d only be thinking it, though, since I wouldn’t want to offend any pretty Nuggets fans in the mood for like.  But the scenario is only barely conceivable because of my wild imagination; it’s all but implausible.  The Nuggets are not contenders.  They are currently off to the best start at home they’ve ever had.  It’s chimerical, smoke and mirrors.  Talk to me when Kenyon Martin makes the veteran’s minimum.

After all, there’s no financial risk, and if at some point they change their minds and decide that Iverson is messing up their…well, that’s it, what do they have to mess up, really?  Philly’s season is almost screwed.  Teams that start the season 4–15 do not make the playoffs unless they only sucked because their big time superstar was out injured and comes back 100%.  Well, the 76ers don’t have any superstar to come back from injury, so they’ve hired a former superstar and hope he still has it.

I’m talking myself into this.

Iverson’s a tough fit on almost any team, but the Princeton offense doesn’t really require a point guard, just someone to bring the ball up the floor.  After that, it’s all about passing and off-the-ball movement.  Well, AI’s game has been all about ball monopoly for several years, but once upon a time, Larry Brown had Iverson moving around screens as well as Reggie Miller ever did.  And although AI shoots a ton, I never thought it was selfish; it’s just how he knows to play.  Furthermore, though he’s not a drive and kick guy, and it’s kind of hard for me to remember him ever catching a pass and then immediately passing to someone else, he’s always been a nifty interior passer on the way to the hoop.  And now instead of having George Lynch and Dikembe Mutombo to pass to, he can dish off to Elton Brand near the basket and a bunch of high-fliers who can get at the rim pretty quickly.  (Yes, I know he had Carmelo, J.R. Smith, and some other jumpers in Denver, but it was more of an every man for himself, offense.)

The one other angle I’m considering is Bill Simmons’ whole Elton Brand is a “second banana” thing.  I’ve never really given much thought about the wolf pack mentality on teams the way Simmons does, but maybe he’s right; maybe it’s really important for a team to have an alpha dog.  Lou Williams being out for two months definitely decreased the talent level in Philly, but it’s not like he was top dog, team leader; he’s a young guy figuring out his way like the rest of their roster.  Elton Brand can’t play that role if he can’t bring it on the floor.  And either way I get the impression that neither he, nor Andre Iguodala have the personality for it anyway.  Maybe that’s what the 76ers have missed most from Andre Miller, a guy whose moxie was as important (or more so) than his talents.  I don’t know if I’d ever call AI a leader, but he sure as hell has moxie, and plays with a fervor that borders on desperation: like he needs the ball to go in.  Maybe he flexes superior, throws his body at the defenders, and the rest of the team falls into place behind him

OK, yeah, I’ve just about talked myself into it, that the AI signing is the right way to go.  I needed a third favorite-team-to-watch this year, anyway.  Now, when the Rockets aren’t on, I can flip back and forth between Oklahoma City and Philly games.  Starting Monday.