Wrong Answer in Memphis

So Allen Iverson is going to be in Memphis, huh?Wow. I don't really know where to begin. I understood the Zach Randolph acquisition, if only because the Grizzlies badly needed a consistent scorer in the post and had a rather large hole to fill at the power forward position. Hakeem Warrick was never able to prove that it belonged to him and Darrell Arthur is probably a year or two away from being able to consistently start on a bad team. So while Zach Randolph doesn't exactly scream, "We're putting all of our chips on the table and pushing for the playoffs," as much as it yells, "I don't know what we're yelling about," I still understand that trade because all you essentially gave up for him was Darko Milicic. But now, they've decided to sign Allen Iverson. And this just screams of a 12-yr old Zach Harper, playing NBA Live '95 and trying to acquire as many big names on a team even if they didn't fit. Back in NBA Live '95, the chemistry factor for a team and the idea that pieces should fit within a roster didn't matter or even exist in video games. And that seems to be a strategy that is important to Chris Wallace, GM of the Grizzlies. What I don't understand is why teams continually shoot themselves in the foot with bad personnel decisions. I've watched it for years with the Timberwolves and see many of the same mistakes with this Grizzlies squad. When they do draft properly, they don't properly cultivate the young players that they should be grooming to eventually take over the team. And when they don't draft properly, they are afraid to jettison these players when everybody else can see that it isn't quite working out. I'm not saying that the Grizzlies should cut bait with someone like Mike Conley. Personally, after watching him for two years, I find it hard to believe that he'll ever be an All-Star in this league. He can't shoot, isn't a very good scorer, and seems to be just quick enough to not be dominated on an NBA court but not quick enough to do some dominating of his own. And acquiring Allen Iverson, even if just for one single season, proves that he probably doesn't have much of a future in Memphis. I think that Conley could actually be pretty good in a backcourt with O.J. Mayo over the course of five or six years. Mayo is set to be a stud in this league and with his scoring ability and Rudy Gay's presence on the court, Conley could easily get enough spacing to be a dangerous point guard, even if he never ends up being a perennial All-Star. He could be like a poor man's Rod Strickland, only without the suspended license due to a Tangeruay fetish. But instead, Allen Iverson is going to have to be a starter in order to appease him and make this circus work well enough over 82 games to keep fans interested. A.I. already showed us his issues with playing off the bench in Detroit and doesn't seem likely to fulfill that role on a team with no shot at making the playoffs. So you're going to have to run Iverson and Mayo in the same starting backcourt and that's a problem with neither of those players being a pure point guard. Iverson can work as an option at point when he's playing alongside Carmelo Anthony, has Marcus Camby covering his back on defense, and has George Karl's support from the sidelines. However, this is the Memphis Grizzlies. He has Marc Gasol covering the paint (not a bad option but not someone who you'd ever consider for Defensive Player of the Year). There is no Carmelo Anthony here. Rudy Gay is a nice player but he isn't a star and he isn't someone that consistently dominates games while helping his team win. And O.J. Mayo is best utilized as a shooting guard with the ball in his hands most of the time, except with Iverson on the court, he'll now have to defer to the veteran to keep his NBA image clean. This move just doesn't make sense. Maybe five years ago this signing would have brought fans in droves to the Grizzlies games but now, Iverson is nothing more than a 20-point per game scorer on a bad team. He can't influence the game like he used to. If he's scoring 20 points per game but giving up 20 and his team is still below 35 wins this year, what has he done? It's not like the Grizzlies will be playing in front of packed houses in January. They'll still be in the bottom ten and probably the bottom five of attendance this season because most people can look through this transaction as a farce. All he will have ended up doing is stunting the growth of two guards who are supposed to be the future of this organization. And you can't blame A.I. either. He just wants to continue his career and ended up having terrible timing in terms of extending his career and legacy due to a bit of nearly mandated fiscal and economic responsibility around the league. He simply didn't have a spot opened to him outside of Charlotte, the Clippers, and Memphis. He's making a small fraction ($3.5 million) of what his annual salary has been over the better part of a decade and he's doing so because he still wants to play professional basketball and add to his career scoring totals. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that. Who should be blamed are Chris Wallace and Michael Heisley for turning their team into a video game roster and not paying attention to the building plans of past successful franchises. This roster may get them 70 wins in NBA Live '95 but it's going to give them another pathetic, fan-numbing season that this small market is getting far too accustomed to.