Fast Break: Michael Curry and Joe Dumars Attempt to Solve the Iverson Puzzle

The heavy duty Iverson fans got their wish this week, Pistons Coach Michael Curry (or it might have been General Manager Joe Dumars, or both of them together) decided that Allen Iverson would start and that Richard Hamilton would not be starting for the first time in years, despite the fact that he is one of the best shooting guards in the League, despite the fact that his shooting is desperately needed by the Pistons both now and in the playoffs, and despite the fact that Hamilton's only sin was being disturbed and distracted by not knowing what Iverson was going to do on any particular play. Iverson decides on each and every play which guard position he is going to play for that particular play, and since he plays both of them well, and since this has been going on for many years, no one wants to tell him to stop doing that.

I was on the losing side of the great "Who Starts, Hamilton or Iverson?" debate. Among other reasons, the last reason for AI not starting that I grew to like was that it would make the Pistons' 2nd unit one of the most and probably the most deadly 2nd unit in the game. Since Iverson plays both guard positions at once and usually takes care of both of them well at the same time, you could have 3 forwards and a center in the game at the same time. Four quality Pistons defensive players and Iverson would be a much better version of the Sixers and a much more successful version.

The important things Curry must accomplish, regardless of what he knows or doesn't know about how complicated it is to make sure Iverson's game does not actually do more harm than good, are:

1. End what they are calling in Detroit "small ball". This is where Iverson and Hamilton play at the same time, along with who everyone agrees is a great, starting, and with any luck playoffs-qualified point guard, Rodney Stuckey. Small ball has been pretty much a disaster for the Pistons, due to rebounding and defending going down the tubes. Please, end it and don't bring it back.

2. Cut way back or eliminate small forward Tayshaun Prince running the point; this would work even less well in the playoffs than it has in the regular. This is too crafty to work in the real world. Prince has a lot more important things to do for the Pistons than run point, especially considering how both Hamilton and Rasheed Wallace have not been shooting well this season.

3. Keep the not working Prince/Iverson/Hamilton combination down, which mostly means, since Prince must play mega minutes, keep the Iverson/Hamilton combination down. Hamilton needs a traditional or standard point guard to work with and everyone agrees that Iverson is not that. And obviously Prince is not that either; Hamilton?Prince is never going to work as a backcourt either.

4. Keep the Stuckey/Iverson combination down too, for a very important indirect reason. Without Hamilton making some jump shots, the Pistons do not have enough offense for the playoffs. You can not run every play to the hoop, especially in the playoffs; you have to have some players knocking down jumpers. But Hamilton plays poorly with Iverson and much better with Stuckey. Hamilton is disturbed by someone playing both guard positions at once, and I can't say that I blame him; I've been reporting on how that can mess up an offense and make it less efficient for many moons.

Now since Stuckey can only play so many minutes, you have to divide his minutes between Stuckey/Iverson and Stuckey/Hamilton. If you start Stuckey/Iverson and go a lot of minutes that way, you don't have enough Stuckey minutes left for Stuckey/Hamilton.

5. No one is arguing that Iverson's minutes should be limited. As mentioned already, I would really want to see Curry make sure that Iverson gets his 35 minutes a game and have that filled out to a greater extent with Iverson and the bigger, quality defensive, but offensively less dynamic group of Pistons, players such as Antonio McDyess, Jason Maxiell, Kwame Brown, and Amir Johnson. You know and I know that Hamilton can't do much of anything with those players. Hamilton can't do much of anything with anyone except Stuckey.

6. You have to stick up for Hamilton's minutes too. This guy in recent years produced what are for a shooting guard some of the sweetest shooting percentages in history. He must play rock bottom minimum 30 minutes a game, or the Pistons are seriously shooting themselves in the foot.

7. Here is the bottom line number one objective for Curry in terms of minutes: Since Hamilton should be close to 30 minutes and Iverson 35-40, you will have to have up to 20 minutes of Iverson/Hamilton regardless of who starts. I would divide and conquer; I would make sure Stuckey is in for about 10 of those and be left with the situation Hamilton can't work with for just 10 minutes or so. You limit the damage to 10 minutes of small ball and 10 minutes of Iverson/Hamilton crazy ball.

Since Stuckey plays 30, his breakdown would be ideally 10 minutes of Stuckey/Iverson/Hamilton, 10 minutes of Stuckey/Hamilton, and just 10 minutes of Stuckey/Iverson. Alright class, let's sum it up and become less confused:

SUMMARY
Iverson/Hamilton with No Stuckey 10
Iverson/Hamilton/Stuckey 10
Stuckey/Hamilton with No Iverson 10
Stuckey/Iverson with No Hamilton 10
Iverson/ No Stuckey and No Hamilton 5-10

It's like a damn rubrick's cube! Just remember the number 10 Curry, the key to solving the puzzle is the number 10! Or if you have to have it even simpler still, just remember that when Hamilton and Iverson are out there and nether Stuckey nor reserve point guard Will Bynum is out there, your offense is most likely going to be bad and sometimes really bad.

Curry and the Pistons most likely fail offensively if the Stuckey/Iverson minutes are much above 10, because if so, there is no way to make sure Hamilton contributes. And then you also have the old Nuggets and Sixers Iverson problem. I call that problem the two point guard problem, and both your offense and defense are damaged to some extent by it. You are too small defensively. Offensively, you either have one guard of limited value that the defense can ignore, if you have what should really be a reserve point guard in there with Iverson. This was the Denver situation. Or, and this would be the potential Detroit problem, you are wasting the overall game potential of two starting, playmaking guards by having them in there at the same time. So I'll be monitoring the Stuckey/Iverson minutes especially, because you can't solve this unless they are limited.

You want to know the truth? The truth is the Nuggets' Iverson puzzle was easy compared to this one, yet Nuggets Coach George Karl could not even begin to solve it, whereas Curry and Dumars are at least aware that they have a puzzle to solve and are doing their darndest to solve it.

So solve this puzzle and keep the Larry Brown caused damage down Mr. Curry and you will win your playoff series and not be fired. But if everything gets blamed on Iverson you won't be fired even if you lose. Among coaches, including Larry Brown and George Karl, blaming Iverson for something he didn't do is an effective, tried, and tested way to dodge responsibility.

By starting Iverson instead of Hamilton, it is more difficult to get much of the above achieved, but it is still possible. I guess Curry just likes to solve complicated problems. That would put him several steps ahead of George Karl, who seemingly has blown off every complicated problem he ever encountered.

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