Hoops Habit
Fansided

Each NBA team’s best trade in franchise history

By Christopher Jeter

(Photo by Jennifer Pottheiser /NBAE via Getty Images)
(Photo by Jennifer Pottheiser /NBAE via Getty Images) /
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(Photo by Garrett W. Ellwood/NBAE via Getty Images)
(Photo by Garrett W. Ellwood/NBAE via Getty Images) /

Denver Nuggets

Chauncey Billups, Antonio McDyess, and Cheikh Samb for Allen Iverson to DET (2008)

Contrary to some people’s beliefs, Carmelo Anthony was not the best player on those mid-2000s Denver Nuggets teams. Yes, the man excelled at putting the basketball through the net, but Melo’s brand of isolation basketball failed to elevate the lesser players around him, thus stifling any team success.

During Anthony’s eight seasons in Denver, he only led the team in win shares once. Take a guess how that season ended (spoiler: it was a first-round exit). This isn’t to slight Anthony or insinuate that he wasn’t an All-Star player — most of those Denver teams were better offensively when Anthony was on the floor — but it was clear that the Nuggets needed a little extra to get off of the quarterfinal assembly line.

Enter Chauncey Billups. The man who won Finals MVP with the Detroit Pistons in 2004 was traded by the very team that he won a title for a mere two games into the season. He, has-been Antonio McDyess and someone named Cheikh Samb were sent to Denver in exchange for Allen Iverson.

While the trade signaled the beginning of the end for Iverson as a star player, Billups — who was born and raised in Denver — gave his hometown team the shot in the arm it needed. His 9.9 WS led the team to their second Western Conference Finals appearance in franchise history.