So, Utah's Northwest Division rival Denver traded for "The Answer" today.  While it remains to be seen if Allen Iverson really will be the answer for the Nuggets, the trade certainly makes things more interesting.

At the time of the trade, the Jazz' (18-7) lead over Denver (14-9) was 3 games.  Iverson, the NBA's second-leading scorer, comes in right as Carmelo Anthony, the league's leading scorer, begins serving his 15-game suspension for that sucker punch in New York on Saturday.

I suspect a lot of "experts" and non-"experts" alike will start trumpeting the Nuggets as the team to beat in the Northwest Division -- probably even as a semi-finalist or finalist in the Western Conference playoffs.

I say 'not so fast.'  First of all, 15 games is a lot for any team to miss their best player.  And with Iverson now entering the twilight of his career, I still think Carmelo is Denver's top gun.  With all due respect to Andre Miller, Iverson clearly provides an upgrade in the backcourt, but it's gonna take George Karl some time to put all these new pieces together without Carmelo ... then do it again in a month.

Then there's the "chemistry" question.  I heard Steve Kerr say on the radio the other day that no matter where A.I. winds up, they're gonna need both the old ball and the new ball just to try and keep everybody happy.  We'll have to see if Iverson and Carmelo can co-exist.

Bottom line, I like the Jazz to win the division ... unless they have more games like that stinker in New York Monday night (Dec. 18th).  Utah's .720 winning percentage looks pretty good and will be tough for Denver to catch.  I still have the Jazz winning somewhere in the range of 53-55 games, and I don't think the Nuggets will get there.