Conventional wisdom had us all thinking
Allen Iverson would destroy the 6ers and either find himself traded or
drive head coach Larry Brown out of Philadelphia. It's still very early
to draw conclusion but Iverson has defied that conventional wisdom and
silenced his critics. When Allen asked for a share of the team captain
role, a request Brown granted without hesitation, he said it would make
a difference. And so far, he's right. No unscheduled late arrivals, no
missed practices, no arguments, nothing.
Thus far in regular season play,
the 76ers have been scoring like mad and defending relentlessly - holding
opponents to 39% shooting from the floor; en route to a perfect record
and their greatest start in years. And despite his 37% shooting, Iverson
is the major reason for the way the 76ers are playing at this point. He's
at it again, breaking ankles as usual, and playing fantastic basketball.
He's taken his new role as co-captain very seriously. Iverson (and Eric
Snow) are running the Sixers offense effectively, making better, wiser
decisions, and most of all, getting his teammates involved. And according
to his teammates, he's become more vocal; urging the big men to get down
low so he can get them the ball.
Towards the end of the pre-season,
these were Brown's words: "He's done everything I've asked him to do, everything
he said he was going to do. We haven't had anybody late. The guys that
are the captains (Iverson and Snow) have acted responsible as captains.
I couldn't be happier in that regard. They have done a great job setting
an example." In all honesty, Brown never had a problem with Snow regarding
lateness and all the other stuff, so really he's stating how impressed
he is that Iverson is stepping up and acting like a mature team leader.
His assists have risen, his rebounds have shot up, his steals - we all
know where those are headed, his turnovers have shrunk, and his FT% (which
was in the 70% region last season) is at an all-time high.
Last season, experts from all over
rated Kobe Bryant as the best shooting guard in the league, and most (including
InsideHoops) rated Iverson as 2nd best. Why was everyone so high on Kobe?
- his fantastic all-around numbers and improved play. So far, here's how
both player's match up statistically:
Like i said before, it's still very
early. But, as evident from the numbers above, there's one obvious answer
as to who's more all-around now, THE -only possible- ANSWER.
With that said, let me drop a few
lines to Insidehoops: Moving Kevin Garnett to the top position in the power
forward section of your updated player rankings was the righteous thing
to do. Duncan has mad game, but KG is off the charts. So with that out
of the way, you know what to do in the shooting guard section!
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