{"id":786823,"date":"2026-07-15T00:42:18","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T00:42:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/786823\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T00:42:18","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T00:42:18","slug":"lebron-james-joining-nuggets-nikola-jokic-would-be-allen-iverson-all-over-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/786823\/","title":{"rendered":"LeBron James joining Nuggets, Nikola Jokic would be Allen Iverson all over again"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ask AI about Al,<\/a> even Google shoogles.<\/a><\/p>\n

Was Allen Iverson, I tapped the other day, actually good for the Nuggets?<\/a><\/p>\n

Thinking \u2026<\/p>\n

Thinking \u2026<\/p>\n

Mixed bag. No shock.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe good: Elite scoring. Playmaking. Excitement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe bad: Overlapping skills. Team success. The trade.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ah, yes. The trade. The Nuggets eventually swapped Iverson to Detroit in November 2008 after 135 games in blue and gold for Chauncey Billups, Antonio McDyess and Cheikh Samb.<\/a><\/p>\n

Given almost 18 years of retrospection, AI was the better scorer. Mr. Big Shot was the better fit, better leader, better facilitator, better \u2014 well, everything else. The best prep hoopster Denver ever produced steadied George Karl\u2019s ship, helping to march the Nuggets to the Western Conference Finals in 2009 against Kobe Bryant and the Lakers.<\/p>\n

Elite scoring. Playmaking. Excitement.<\/p>\n

Overlapping skills. Team success. The trade.<\/p>\n

Carmelo then, Nikola Jokic now.<\/p>\n

Allen Iverson then, LeBron James now.<\/a><\/p>\n

Not the perfect parallel, granted. But both AI and King James are old dogs<\/a>, set in their ways, who can\u2019t necessarily be counted on to master new tricks this late in their careers.<\/p>\n

Sure, Iverson was all kinds of fun in Denver, even into his 30s \u2014 but once a ball hog, always a ball hog. His Nuggs won 45 games in \u201906-\u201907 and won 50 in \u201907-08. Only those same Nuggets lost to the Spurs over five games in the first round of \u201907 playoffs as AI averaged 22.8 points on 22.8 shots per game. In the \u201908 postseason, it was another first-round loss, this time in four games to the Lakers, as Iverson averaged 24.5 points on 20.8 shots per contest.<\/p>\n

\"Denver<\/p>\n

John Leyba, The Denver Post<\/p>\n

Denver Nuggets vs Los Angeles Lakers NBA Playoffs Game 4 Monday, April 28, 2008 at the Pepsi Center in Denver, Co. Denver Nuggets’ Allen Iverson (3) on the bench in the second quarter.<\/p>\n

King James\u2019 Denver interest as a free agent is reportedly flagging, but it ain\u2019t over \u2019til the fat whiteboard sings. Like AI two decades earlier, James turns the Nuggets into ESPN\u2019s Team, which, by proxy, makes them America\u2019s Team. It\u2019s the Coach Prime Effect times 50. Denver becomes the NBA capital of the world. Ticket values skyrocket. Jerseys fly off the shelves. The King\u2019s presence makes the Nuggs nationally relevant and a heck of a lot more fun to watch.<\/p>\n

But like AI, does he make them \u2026 better? And better when it counts?<\/p>\n

King James is only the second NBA player over the last 40 years to share top billing in a movie with Bugs Bunny<\/a>, our new cultural bar for all-time basketball greatness. \u00a0At age 35, he helped carry the Lake Show to a 2020 NBA title at the COVID bubble.<\/p>\n

Yet in the six postseasons since, LeBron\u2019s been knocked out in the first round of the playoffs three times, reached the Western Conference Finals once (2023), made the West semis once, and missed the bracket entirely once.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a different game in April, May and June. Different rules. Different defenses. Different calls. Basketball-Reference.com says James put up a superlative 124 Offensive Rating (OR) \u2014 points per 100 possessions \u2014 during the 2020 postseason.<\/a> But over five playoff runs that followed, he\u2019s only topped the 120 mark in offensive efficiency one other time (2025) and his OR dipped to 109 this past spring while he shot 45.9% from the floor and 32.7% on treys.<\/p>\n

If the King\u2019s expected final season was strictly about basketball, purely about joy on the court, it would be the Nuggets, wouldn\u2019t it?\u00a0 Jokic and Old Man Bron are basketball brothers, hoops savants who always seem to be two to three steps ahead of everyone else.<\/p>\n

The Nuggets during the apex of The Joker Era \u2014 think 2020-2024 \u2014 were at their best when they were looking for the quick bucket on runouts, flipping defense into instant offense. Even if the engine doesn\u2019t turn over as often as it used to, James can still fly at 41.<\/p>\n

Joker hitting LeBron mid-stride while the latter runs skinny post routes up the court, then finishing with authority, would bring back memories of Peyton Manning finding Demaryius Thomas over the top for six.<\/a> They\u2019d scare the pants off of even the best Western Conference defenses, Oklahoma City\u2019s slap-happy, grabby mitts included. With King James in the fold, Thunder-Nuggets, for better or worse, would inevitably devolve into a free-throw contest between LeBron and SGA \u2014 a ratings boon and aesthetic flop.<\/p>\n

Alas, even if the King says his final act isn\u2019t about money, it is about staging. Staging and control.<\/p>\n

For one, the buzz says LeBron is lining up a documentary crew to film his version of the last NBA chapter. Can you picture Jokic ever being comfortable with camera crews that aren\u2019t his hanging around to chronicle his every move in the locker room? Or on the bench? Or Kroenke Sports & Entertainment green-lighting an ongoing narrative in which they\u2019ve got neither editorial oversight nor final cut?<\/p>\n

For another, One More Ride For Posterity is also designed to end with a ring \u2014 or trying, at least. Shea (Thunder), Wemby (San Antonio), LaMelo Ball (Minnesota) and Luka (Lakers) give the Western Conference four of the league\u2019s best six teams. With all apologies to Jalen Brunson and the Knicks, the road to the crown is still simpler and easier via the Eastern Conference route.<\/p>\n

Philly is risky, Miami is trite and Cleveland is hackneyed. But if you want the Last Dance to end in confetti, those might be the smarter plays for James\u2019 camp.<\/p>\n

The Nuggets\u2019 second-smartest move right now would be to give Peyton Watson $20 million. The smartest would be to facilitate a trade that flips P-Swat into two P-Swat clones. Jokic turns 32 on February 19. If there\u2019s a debate on Chopper Circle between \u201cElite Scoring\u201d and \u201cTeam Success,\u201d it better darn well be a short one.<\/p>\n

Want more sports news? Sign up for the Sports Omelette to get all our analysis on Denver\u2019s teams.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ask AI about Al, even Google shoogles. Was Allen Iverson, I tapped the other day, actually good for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":786824,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3781],"tags":[95380,6170,7,2298,305,23348,6315,301,187,3943,130,6507,1536,966,165,185,307,252,6,253,302,4097,310,2865,1146,4098,66,198,574,3460],"class_list":["post-786823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-denver-nuggets","tag-95380","tag-allen-iverson","tag-basketball","tag-chauncey-billups","tag-cleveland","tag-covid","tag-demaryius-thomas","tag-denver","tag-denver-nuggets","tag-denvernuggets","tag-espn","tag-george-karl","tag-kobe-bryant","tag-lamelo-ball","tag-latest-headlines","tag-lebron-james","tag-minnesota","tag-more-nuggets-news","tag-nba","tag-nikola-jokic","tag-nuggets","tag-nuggets-takes","tag-oklahoma","tag-peyton-manning","tag-peyton-watson","tag-sean-keeler","tag-sports","tag-sports-columnists","tag-western-conference","tag-western-conference-finals"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116921221008045839","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=786823"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786823\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/786824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=786823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=786823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=786823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}