The Diagnosis: What Does Allen Iverson's Career Teach The Cavs?

There are great players and great players.

There are players that play better when paired with another great, there are players that play better when they have to drag the team through the ranks.

Iverson is one of those players that can drag a team alone, or maybe I should use the past tense.

Now he's too old to drag a team to the finals, he has lost some of his grip, but that's OK. Everybody loses something when they start getting older.

The question is; was Iverson a victim of himself or of bad management?

Both.

After Iverson's derailment in Philly, everything started going wrong.

He felt kind of as if he had peaked—he did not need to practice. He already averaged 30 PPG. He was too good for that team.

Then Philly traded him away to Denver. Some expected an explosive trio; Camby-Melo-AI and the awakening of Syracuse's star.

Melo did play better, Camby even got a DPOY, and Iverson was wracking up points in bunches.

What failed?

Well, whenever AI has to score 30+, then he's dragging a team. When he has to score more, some other guy is not performing and that's the issue.

AI has been seen as a guy that could drag a team out of the deep, all by himself.

They were mistaken. No one wins championships alone.

Michael had Pippen (and Rodman later on), Kobe had Shaq (and now Gasol), Garnett has Pierce and Allen (and vice-versa), and even Shaq cannot win a ring alone (read; without an MVP-worthy guard).

That's what Iverson missed throughout his whole career, a sidekick, but a great sidekick.

People always thought that AI was a combo-guard, he could play SG and PG, well he can't. AI is a shooter, he creates his own chances, but he can't put a team on the move, like Billups does.

AI just needed a great PG, that could feed him the ball more often, he needed someone that would share the burden of leading a team with him.

The problem is, he never had anyone.

Why?

Because people thought that AI could do it all by himself.

Doesn't this story seem all too similar to LeBron James?

He takes every game by the horns.

He does not fear anyone, he knows he's the best.

But, what will happen under the pressure of the playoffs?

Remember the Sixers' playoff run in '01?

They beat the East and still prevented the Lakers from sweeping a team in the finals. 4-1, against Kobe and Shaq.

The Cavs are the best team in the regular season, but does LJ have everything to win a title?

Does he have a great Big Man? What about a creative PG?

He has some solid guys with him, no doubt, but can they really help LeBron?

Can the Cavs stun the Lakers in the finals, or go through the C's in the East?

I say they can't.

A one-man-team has already made it to the finals (twice in this decade actually; Sixers and Cavs), but it never went all the way.

The Cavs have to find a guy that can share LeBron's burden, so that he can relax and become even more explosive.

They simply have to find a Pippen, a Pippen that Iverson never had.