With Collins, Iguodala fulfills potential

Which is the bigger surprise - that after 132 games the 76ers are finally back to .500 for the first time since Nov. 11, 2009, or that yet another NBA trade deadline has passed and Andre Iguodala is still with the team?

Admit it. That is a close one.

Just about every season for the last few years, Iguodala has been rumored to be moving on to one team or another. Those things will happen when a struggling team has an $80 million asset on the roster. Often, teams look to dump contracts, and Iguodala's certainly is a big one.

The chatter continued this season, when the Sixers opened the season 3-13. But a funny thing happened while they were climbing back to relevancy: With Doug Collins as his coach, Iguodala started to buy in, one day, one game at a time, and became invaluable. When the calendar flipped to 2011, Iguodala essentially was off the table.

Iguodala will never be the franchise's superstar like the A.I. who preceded him, but he is a very good second option on any team, and an outstanding third. If the Sixers are right and Jrue Holiday develops into a stud, they could be one piece - albeit a big piece - away from having a roster that will be competitive with Miami, Chicago, Orlando, Boston, and, now, New York and New Jersey.

Collins has realized what Eddie Jordan never did. Iguodala is not great in half-court sets, but is nearly unstoppable in transition. Collins has given Iguodala the freedom to take off with the basketball, to create in transition, and to be aggressive. Collins has put the basketball in Iguodala's hands, and Iguodala has rewarded him with dogged defense on virtually every possession. He has played unselfishly, often passing up a scoring opportunity to feed a teammate who is in a better position to score.

Iguodala's scoring average has taken a hit, dropping from his career high of 19.9 the season after the Allen Iverson trade to 14.1 heading into Friday night's game against Detroit, but his happiness certainly has increased. As the Sixers were crushing a mutinous Pistons team 110-94, Iguodala was smiling and laughing and taking care of his teammates.

After passing up what for him would have been an easy drive through traffic to the basket to hit a cutting Thaddeus Young, Iguodala put down two forceful dunks that showed his quickness and power with the basketball. The first came after Lou Williams got a steal and fed Iguodala, who looked over each shoulder and, realizing no one was near him, did a windmill dunk that brought the fans to their feet. The second came when he got the ball near the three-point line and drove past two dejected Pistons for another dunk.

Understand this: Detroit was shorthanded because earlier in the day six Pistons players - including starters Tracy McGrady, Ben Wallace, Rodney Stuckey, and Tayshaun Prince - skipped the team's shootaround. Before the game, Detroit head coach John Kuester had to address questions about a team mutiny, and not one of the players who skipped the walk-through played. That left the Pistons with a six-man rotation that was overmatched.

Iguodala took advantage, scoring 21 points, grabbing 11 rebounds and making seven assists. The assists are what really stood out.

"We have a lot of guys on our team who can score the ball and who look to score," Iguodala said. "Sometimes I might sacrifice that for someone else. It goes unlooked a lot of times, but I know how to play this game, and I pride myself in being a high IQ guy. Small things like that I feel like take this team farther than the normal eye can see."

Collins appreciates it. After the game, he wrote on a grease board in the locker room a couple of numbers: 29-29, which is now the Sixers record; 26-16, the team's record since starting the season 3-13; and 12-4, their record since Jan. 22, fifth best in the league in that span.

"I feel so strongly about what (Iguodala) is for this team, what he brings to this team on a nightly basis," Collins said. "He's our best defender. He creates so much for other players. He's one of the most unselfish players I've ever coached and . . . when we're really good it's going to be because he's going to be a huge part of that."

Iguodala has been that this season. He might never be what the fans want him to be - the ultimate No. 1 option - but he has been very good, and the team is a reflection of that. If Iguodala had not been very good, the trading deadline would have come and he would have gone.