Allen Iverson struggling to find a home - 籃球

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Allen Iverson struggling to find a home

Posted by John Paulsen (07/13/2009 @ 10:18 am)


Allen Iverson continues to explore his options on the free agent market,
but it's not like he has teams tripping over each other for his services.
There's mutual interest between AI and the Heat, but Miami doesn't want
to pony up.

Allen Iverson asked for the $5.8 million midlevel exception from the Heat
in a one-year deal, but Miami has been reluctant to pay him much more than
$2 million, if that. Iverson also is exploring Memphis and Charlotte, but
Miami would be his preference if money is equal. The Heat spoke with the
agent for Andre Miller — who's in a stalemate with Philadelphia — but
hasn't pursued a sign-and-trade, and Miller wants more than the midlevel.
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Memphis is also interested and Grizzlies owner Michael Heisley speculated
about why the Heat aren't willing to offer Iverson a mid-level deal.

Heisley indicated Sunday that Iverson is “only looking for a one-year
contract,” which actually would mesh with Miami's intent to add no players
with contracts stretching past next season to preserve maximum flexibility to
re-sign Wade and land him at least one marquee teammate in the summer of
2010. Yet it's believed that the Heat are reluctant to come close to the $5
million for next season that the Grizzlies are reportedly prepared to pay,
since Miami is already in luxury-tax territory.
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The Heat are sitting at about $69.86 million which is a hair below the
threshold of $69.92 million. If they sign Iverson, they’ll go into luxury
tax territory and will have to essentially pay a dollar-for-dollar tax on
AI's entire salary. Not only would they miss out on the reward for being under
the luxury tax, but they'd have to pay the tax themselves. Therefore, a
contract worth $2 million could perhaps cost the Heat $5.5 million (or more),
depending on how many teams are over the threshold and how big the payout
turns out to be.

It's strange to see a player of Iverson's stature fighting for table scraps
on the free agent market. He was once a franchise player, but his disastrous
stint in Detroit (resulting from his distaste for coming off the bench) and
his ball-dominant style has created an environment in which most teams are
extremely leery of utilizing his services. True contenders don't want to
participate in an experiment that has a good chance of backfiring while the
lower echelon playoff teams don't see Iverson as the game-changer needed to
put them over the top.

He has proven that he is not willing to what's best for the team (by coming
off the bench), so why would a good team want to add him? The Heat are
interested because he'll put butts in the seats and would probably add a few
wins, which might help to convince Dwyane Wade to stay in Miami.


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