I love how people can say "it's Iverson we're talking about," yet have nothing to back it up.
The stats say that IT's past season (entering his prime, no reason to think he can't sustain close to this level for a few more seasons) was in all likelihood better than Iverson's MVP season.
Iverson played defense. Compared to Iverson, Isaiah Thomas is a "nice little player".
Also, calling Iverson "a pretty dreadful scorer" just means you've never seen him play.
Is that so?
I'm not gonna get started on defense, because the guy cheated passing lanes for steals all the time because that was a stat. His actual team/individual D was NOT impressive. If you think it was, you either haven't watched him enough (at all?) or are a fanboy.
As for offense, you'd say a guy who posted eFG% of .448 in Philly (.452 for his career) and TS% of .513 (.518 career) is good? Maybe you're not into advanced shooting stats yet, so how about career shooting percentages of .425 and .313 from deep? Sound like a great scorer to you?
People got caught up on his handles and flashiness, but the guy was the epitome of a chucker.
IT's past season's shooting %'s would have all been career highs for Iverson. Yes AI scored more per game, but not per possession and definitely not efficiently enough to be considered a great scorer.
I'm sure there are more guys who could put up nearly 30ppg if they played 43 minutes a game and chucked 25 shots in that time.
The East was incredibly weak back then, so making the Finals isn't really all that impressive. You think Iverson could've overcame LeBron?
There's really nothing other than steals that Iverson can be proven better at than Thomas, scoring included.