Starstruck

In order for a team to become more successful it just needs to throw in another superstar, right?  Well, no not exactly . Teams that think they can keep their current roster and just throw in a star player to suddenly launch their franchises to the NBA finals are kidding themselves.  The first thing you might say here is, hey look at the Celtics; they went from one of the worst records in NBA history to winning the NBA Championship by throwing in Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen. This example is by no means the norm and Boston was extremely lucky that their team chemistry panned out the way it did.  Now can Memphis pull off the same result with the addition of Allen Iverson? Absolutely not.

Don’t get me wrong, Memphis has some major potential and budding talent developing down there, but team chemistry is highly underrated, and often overlooked when general managers are signing big name players like Iverson.  With a young core of Mike Conley, O.J. Mayo, Rudy Gay, Marc Gasol and now Hasheem Thabeet, the team could use a veteran player to lead the way.  However, adding a highly unstable character to the squad like Iverson is something else entirely.

One thing to consider with star players is their personality style and character presence that they will be bringing to the team. Allen Iverson is just like any other attention loving, media-hog who always causes problems for his team. Every sport has one; the NFL has T.O., the MLB has Manny Ramirez.  While all of these players are towards the top tier of the talent pool in their respective sports, their behaviors are so erratic that they usually bring along more harm than good.

My advice to the Grizzlies: Stay young and keep rebuilding until you can bring in a veteran player who can lead by example starting in the locker room.  Star-power might initially increase ticket sales but will not improve your team in the long run.