Ka-boom! From the Detroit Free Press’ Vince Ellis :

The Pistons will trade guard Chauncey Billups, forward Antonio McDyess and center Cheikh Samb to the Denver Nuggets for guard Allen Iverson, the Free Press has learned.


Billups and McDyess were absent from this morning’s shoot-around at the Time Warner Cable Arena in Charlotte, but Pistons coach Michael Curry declined to comment, saying the players œwere excused.

He did say Billups and McDyess were still in Charlotte and the plan was for them to play tonight against the Bobcats.

Power forward Rasheed Wallace said he was just hearing about the trade and didn’t have much to add. He did think aloud about the possibility of adding a former NBA scoring champion in Iverson.

œAnother scorer back there with Rip (Hamilton) ¦ we’ll see how it plays out, Wallace said. œI can’t comment too much. That’s not a Guaransheed right there, so I can’t comment too much.

While A. Sherrod Blakey points to McDyess’ “reluctance to be included in the deal”, the Denver Post’s Benjamin Hochman claims “Denver plans to buy out McDyess’s contract so it appears he won’t actually play”.   Hardwood Paroxyism‘s Matt Moore, however, cannot help but marvel at the prospect of Rasheed Wallace, Kwame Brown and Iverson on the same side.

Of course, it’s Detroit, so it’ll work, but damn. That’s a whole lot of personality right there. Well, that and a guy that throws cakes.

Iverson a Bad Boy? Ask yourself, was there really any other way?