A lot has been said about Allen Iverson and his unemployed status. I wanted to throw in my 2 cents on the matter, but I also wanted to keep it short and sweet.

On a general and non-fantasy basketball related perspective: I agree/concur with pretty much everything Jalen Rose has to say in this video.

From a fantasy perspective, I would prefer to see him in a Bobcats jersey. It makes things a little bit less of a clean-up in terms of sorting out fantasy valuations. They could simply have plugged him in at SG, which I doubt they would have considering Larry (Brown) likes(d) him at point; and Raja Bell could have come off the bench.That scenario feels like million miles away and a million years ago, right now... yup it looks like, feels like, "it's left the building."

From A.I.'s recent tweets, it appears that he is close to sealing some kind of deal with the Memphis Grizzlies. This is disconcerting to me as a fantasy-centric observer. O.J. Mayo, who is quickly expected to blossom into a superstar; and Mike Conley Jr., who just last season was finally able to kick-start his fantasy relevance are both going to take hits in their fantasy values. That's if A.I. demands to start. That's if it's at all legally possible for him to put starting as a clause in his contract. That's if he (Iverson) even cares about starting at all.

So that leaves us with the alternative of Allen coming off-the-bench. That should hurt his value much more than his starting would have affected the Grizz's young backcourt.

To all the fantasy heads out there: Let's not get too post-traumatic-stressed-up about what happened in Detroit last season, and not dump ALL the blame on A.I. and his attitude. While some chunk of responsibility can be rested upon it. See it from the light that the Detroit's coaching end had some impact as well. It takes two to tango.

"A new team, a new start." That, to me, is most likely the frame of mind Iverson will be bringing; regardless of wherever he ends up signing. A.I. might even end up standing for Attitude Improvement, before this season's over.

Until he actually signs somewhere, I will hold off on more in-depth analysis of his fantasy value. It's best assessed in the context of his immediate milieu.

As of now, his high risk-reward status is unchanged. Ten (10) rounds into our fantasy mock draft (which is still ongoing, btw) over at the Four Fingers of Fantasy Draft Guide, Iverson remains undrafted. Can you blame us at this point in time if we can't seem to force ourselves to be bullish on him? He surely (I hope) should outperform his current draft position. He is capable of still be an offensive boon to any fantasy team at this stage, plus he should be able to chip-in steals, assists, threes, and FT% to boot.

*A.I. photo c/o nydailynews.com/sports/basketball (2008)

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AI
written by jyoung4, August 29, 2009

I agree with most you have to say. AI has very little value now. I hope he ends up with Bobcats too. Larry is the coach to squeeze what is left out of him.

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Re: AI
written by Points in the Paint, August 30, 2009

AI was drafted in the 11th round of our mock, two teams ahead of me. If he did reach me, I would have grabbed him. As low as the fantasy outlook is on Iverson, I personally think he should outperform most 11th round picks.

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