For starters, McDyess isn't going anywhere. The Nuggets will buy out his contract—which under the league's convoluted salary rules somehow makes them money. Then they will waive him, he'll wait 30 days and re-sign with Detroit for less money. Samb ("as big a project that there has ever been") is headed to the D-League and may never contribute a single thing ever. So essentially, it's a straight-up trade that the Nuggets believe makes their starting lineup into an actual basketball team and saves them cash. As long as no one tells Chauncey that he's 32 years old.

The Nuggets players seemed disappointed, but coach George Karl is not. "If you look at my history, I've always had good point guards, and we've gotten away with winning (here) without an all-star caliber point guard." That's a polite way of saying, "You're no Gary Payton." Billiups isn't either, but he will pass the ball sometimes and has "always dreamed of winning a championship with the Nuggets," which is sort of like dreaming that Superman would come to your birthday party, but he was just a kid.

For the Pistons, this is a low-risk, high-reward gamble. Obviously, they're good enough to reach the conference finals, but no one believes they're going any further without some change. So they take two big contracts off the books and pray Iverson blows up for the final year of his contract, dribbles circles around Paul Pierce come playoff time, then the Knicks give him $50 million while Detroit polishes another trophy. But in the worst case scenario, they're no better off than they were last year, Iverson leaves anyway, and they start over next summer with a clean slate and more money to play with. Rasheed Wallace now has competition for craziest athlete in the building, but at the very least we'll get a few laughs out of that.

Other results from the big trade: Juwan Howard is out of a job (at least until the McDyess situation is resolved) and Woody Paige threw out his tail bone attempting to pull off a very tortured chess metaphor. Seriously, I have no idea what that guy is saying. J.R. Smith is a rook or something?

How about that hair? The most important question of all though: Will Rodney Stuckey get to keep the his No. 3 jersey? Inquiring minds want to know!

Nuggets ship A.I. to Detroit for Billups [Denver Post]
Looking into the costs of the Billups/McDyess trade... [Denver Stiffs]
Roster Analysis: Detroit Pistons Trade Billups and McDyess to Denver Nuggets for Iverson [Indignant Sports]
Bearings On My T-Shirt [Free Darko]
Photo: AP

Keith Olbermann seemed genuinely flustered last night when Al Gore took his sweet time taking the stage at Joe Louis Arena to endorse Barack Obama; so much so that he forgot what team Chauncey Billups plays for. Billups was onstage to introduce Gore, and Olbermann had to go to his notes to identify him; at first claiming that he played for the Nuggets. Close ... both cities begin with a D. Come on Keith, you're a former SportsCenter anchor.

Part of the problem was that Olbermann's show was just about to end, and he was frustrated because Gore had not yet reached the stage (those ethanol-powered limos are goof for the environment but slow). Meaning that the upstart Dan Abrams — who reminds me of that kid who you always threw rocks at from your tree fort — was going to get the speech on his show in the following time slot.

Al Gore Endorses Barack Obama [MSNBC]
Keith Olbermann Doesn't Have Much Time For Sports These Days [Awful Announcing]

• B-B-B-B-Broken. Chauncey Billups might not have the "Whoa Boy" numbers of a few other guards in the league, but he wins basketball games. Plain and simple. Like yogurt. Plain yogurt. The no-name brand. Mr. Big Shot hit two free throws with a tenth of a second left to help the Pistons hand the Celtics their first home loss of the season, 87-85. Kevin Garnett led the Celtics with 26 points, and Ray Allen had 24, including a sick tying 3-pointer that excited Big Papi with 19 seconds to go.

• Christmas In December. This one is a little deceiving. While the final score reads close — a 108-105 Dallas win, decided when Nash airballed a three in the closing seconds — the Mavericks actually hogged the remote all night. They never trailed, led by 17 at the end of the first and were up by 14 midway through the fourth. Dirk scored 31 points, including the Mavs' final eight, while Nash finished with 21 and 18 assists. Dallas is now 18-9, just a hair's breadth — huh? — behind Phoenix (18-8) and San Ant (18-7).

• Nine-Alarm Blaze. Firefighters were called out to the Rose Garden early this morning to tackle a raging Portland blaze and to rescue a number of Toronto Raptors trapped by the flames. Crews arrived at the arena around 12:45am where Brandon Boy had already erupted for 25 points, nine rebounds and eight assists in leading the Trail Blazers to their ninth straight win, 101-96. Darrick Martin perished in the fire.

• Loud Noyzs! Rudy Gay hit a three in Tim Duncan's kitchen at the buzzer to give the Griz an 88-85 victory over the Spurs. Memphis purposely blew a 23-point lead. ... David Lee finally got some burn, scoring 17 of his 22 points in the first 24 as the Knicks beat the LeBrons 108-90. Isiah got a second multiyear contract extension for the win. ... And in Atlanta, Anthony Johnson had a season-high 21 points as the Hawks soared over the Heat 117-111 in OT. Alonzo Mourning left with a patellar tendon tear in his right knee after falling awkwardly in the first. He'll be out at least six months, unless he decides to run on his hands.