The 76ers made the right move by not trading Allen Iverson. There’s just no reason to trade your best, most popular player when you won’t get even half value in return and you’ll still be stuck in salary cap hell because of the Chris Webber and Samuel Dalembert contracts. So AI will be back to put up more insane numbers on a mediocre team. One reason they’ll be mediocre is that this is a thin team, which is especially dangerous since Iverson and Webber aren’t exactly the most durable players. Thin rosters mean lots of minutes for the starters, so keep that in mind when dealing with the Sixers.

The Stud: Allen Iverson, PG
It might have been his best season yet, which is truly remarkable for a player like Iverson who has endured his share of physical hardships throughout his 10-year career. Iverson’s 33 ppg was a career high and his nearly 45% from the field was his best mark since his second season. It was also a pretty healthy season for Iverson. He missed two sets of four games each before sitting out the season’s final two contests, finishing with 72 games on the season, which is just about the best-case scenario with AI. The great thing about Iverson is that he may miss games, but if he’s out there, he’s playing. In three of the four games right before and after Iverson missed contests, he played 51, 46 and 42 minutes. After a summer of rumors Iverson is still in Philly, so don’t expect much to change. It would be asking a lot for Iverson to repeat his excellent shooting, but after dropping to a career-low 1.9 spg last season it wouldn’t be surprising to see that number jump back to the 2.5 range. He’s certainly worthy of a first-round pick, but if you can snag him around the snake portion of the first/second rounds, that’s probably where he fits best.

The Support: Andre Igoudala, GF
His numbers improved across the board, but it was mostly a result of seeing five extra minutes per game. His rebound, assist, steal and block rates all declined from his rookie season and it’s not like he asserted himself as much more of a scorer. But there’s still plenty reason to be hopeful for an Igoudala breakout. All of the ingredients are still there – durability (82 games in both seasons), tons of minutes (wouldn’t be surprising to see him push 40 mpg this year), a well-rounded game with no real weakness and one category in which he could possibly be dominant (steals). He finished 45/61 on the player rater last year (total/average) which puts him in roughly the fifth round in a 12-team league. It’s very likely you’ll be able to grab him there, maybe even a round later. Igoudala’s the perfect kind of guy to target in those middle rounds. That’s when I like to look for low-downside guys that I can plug into my lineup all year and not worry about. There’s no reason to think Igoudala will put up numbers any worse than what he did last year. It may very well be the case that he’s no superstar, perhaps not even an all-star, and that he won’t improve much on last year. I don’t necessarily believe that, but even if that’s the case you know that in the end the numbers will be there. And his chances of breaking out as a 22 year-old in his third season, who has two seasons of experience are probably pretty decent.

The Supporting Support: Chris Webber, PF
Give the man credit – he missed just three of the season’s first 75 games before sitting out the final four, making it his healthiest season since the 99-00 campaign. He finished at #38 on the player rater and was likely one of the bargains of your draft, dropping into at least the 50s. We had him ranked #58 and said he could be the steal of the draft … but probably not. Well, I guess we were right on both ends, since Mike James probably took steal of the draft honors. Everyone is onto Webber by this point, and you won’t find anyone taking him in the first 40 picks of your draft. It was a bit of a bounce back for Webber after a couple of tumultuous seasons, but he didn’t really play all that much better, he just played more, averaging a robust 38.6 mpg. Webber’s strengths and weaknesses are pretty well-defined by now. When he plays you know what you’re going to get – around 20/10, bad shooting for a PF and passable steals and blocks. That’s plenty valuable. It’s all about how often he’ll be on the court. If he starts slipping and you think you can manage without him should he miss 40 games or so, there’s no reason not to go for it.

The Sleeper: Samuel Dalembert, C
There’s a saying we have here at FBB. “Fool me once, shame on … shame on you. Fool me – you can’t get fooled again.” That basically sums up Dalembert, but we’re willing to give him another chance as one of those post-hype sleepers that may have burned enough people so that he’ll slip in drafts. Dalembert’s been a mega-tease for three seasons now and hasn’t shown any real improvement, but in his defense he hasn’t really been given the opportunity. Mo Cheeks botched this situation miserably last year. Dalembert was on his way to fulfilling the expectations of his huge contract – well as close as he could considering the absurdity of the deal – after getting off to a slow start and missing the first 13 games due to injury. In January he averaged 11 and 11 with 3.4 blocks on 61% shooting and a solid 75% from the line. Those are simply ridiculous fantasy numbers. But then a minor ankle sprain knocked him out for three games and the $60 million man came back to find that he lost his starting job to Stephen Hunter, a guy the Sixers traded to New Orleans two weeks earlier but had to take back after he failed a physical. Nonsensical stuff. Dalembert was entirely ineffective coming off the bench for the next month, went to the press with his disillusionment and didn’t really impress after getting his starting job back for the final few weeks. Despite missing 16 games and averaging just 26.7 mpg, Dalembert still blocked the eighth most shots in the league, so he’s plenty fantasy relevant. Getting just 30-32 mpg consistently could very easily make Dalembert a top 50 fantasy player. Hey, it could happen. Or we could be fooled again.

The Slacker: Kyle Korver, SF
Dalembert may be a specialist, but he at least offers pretty modest value in FG% and boards in addition to his blocks. Korver, meanwhile, is a true one-category player. Sure, he shoots 85% from the line, but AI is likely to shoot as many free throws in one game as Korver will in a month. Korver was terrible at the start of the season and got better as it went on, leaving hope that he might show improvement this year, but it seems pretty clear that what you see is what you get. A heavy-brow dude who hits his share of 3s and does nothing else. He managed to finish at #72 on the player rater, but it was a 72/98, meaning his durability gave him much of his value. If it gets late in the draft and you find yourself in need of 3s, Korver could be a fit. Ideally he’s someone you keep on your bench and plug in when an injury hits, just to be sure you get one category of solid production from the replacement.

Double Dribbles: Willie Greene should be back to full strength and is line to be a hot pick up should AI go down. He filled that role a few years ago and is always worth plugging in should that scenario arise. The 76ers don’t have a particularly deep backcourt and he’d see plenty of minutes in those games … Stephen Hunter didn’t show much at all last year. After averaging 1.3 bpg in just 13.8 mpg in Phoenix in 04-05 he looked like he could be a nice source of cheap blocks if he got the PT. But in 19 mpg last season he averaged just 1.1 bpg. He’s a ridiculously high percentage shooter, but won’t ever shoot enough to make a real difference and will take it back with his few attempts at the line. He’s that bad … He didn’t play much, but Shavlik Randolph showed a nice aggressiveness on the boards when he did. Should Webber go down, Randolph might be the one plugged into the lineup. Man, that’s a pretty scary thought.