- Larry Kuzniewski
- Allen Iverson will start the season on the Grizzlies’ bench…
Though he’s yet to play a game in a Grizzlies’ uniform after suffering a torn hamstring in training camp, Allen Iverson seems to have adjusted to the team pretty well so far. He’s been animated and supportive on the bench during games and there haven’t been any kind of locker-room red flags. The situation is likely to get more complicated, however, when the team tries to blend Iverson’s idiosyncratic talents into a team that’s already began getting used to playing together.
Owner Michael Heisley, general manager Chris Wallace, and coach Lionel Hollins have all provided different accounts of their meeting with Iverson this summer, but none of them have said definitively that the team discussed in specific terms what Iverson’s role would be. As for Iverson, he’s said all the right things except when asked about coming off the bench. In those instances, he’s responded with variations on the refrain that no one would even consider such a thing if not for his problems in Detroit last season.
Iverson is an all-time great, no doubt. But in this instance I think he’s completely wrong. Iverson is a small guard who is much more of a scorer than a distributor. He’s a wobbly outside shooter whose game is dependent on quickness yet he’s 34 years old and coming off a hamstring injury. In his prime, his outlandish ability triumphed over the peculiarity of his game. But those days are gone. I would argue that any team that would sign Iverson at this stage of his career would want to use him as an instant-offense sixth man, a la Jason Terry or Nate Robinson. A rich man’s Flip Murray. Of course, the Grizzlies were apparently the only team this summer that was serious about signing Iverson, which, itself, tells you plenty.
