How is it that news that the NBA will go back to the original ball gets the marquee headline over the pending trade of Allen Iverson? It could be that we have seen this song and dance before. Trade speculation and A.I. have gone hand in hand for years.

Unfortunately it’ll be a while yet before I can resume contributing to this blog regularly again. Until then, Sarge and Dennis will have to hold it down. Still, despite the time crunch, the allure of thinking about a superstar being traded, and whether the real life GMs can gets ideas from us fantasy counterparts has me churning out this edition of Dime Day (even if it’s a few weeks and one day late).

I checked out Allen Iverson’s ESPN Player Profile to look for inspiration on one trades A.I. and found that he has been quite the tradable asset. Since news of him parting ways for the last time with the Sixers broke last week, the focus will be on examples of recent fantasy trades involving Iverson.

One-for-one trades:
It appears that a lot of fantasy GMs use the Answer to fill their team’s need of a bona fide big man. Case in point the following examples:

Iverson for Elton Brand.
Iverson for Tim Duncan.
Iverson for Dwight Howard.

Someone even landed Dirk Nowitzki during week 4 straight up for Iverson. To that GM, I give mad props. Actually all of these GMs did quite well. They bought into rebounds and blocks (or in the case of Dirk, treys) with excellent FG% without sacrificing too much in points. I would suppose that the Iverson recipients required points, assists, steals and to a less extent, three-pointers.

Over at ESPN, Iverson has also been traded for the likes of Vince Carter, Chris Paul, Gilbert Arenas, and Paul Pierce. Having any of these players is better than having Iverson; who knows how long it will take for a Sixers trade to be hatched?

Multi-player trades:
Check out these examples.

1. Iverson, David West and Andris Biedrins for Rashard Lewis, Deron Williams and Wally Szczerbiak. Why would anyone want to be involved in a trade with so many presently non-active players?

2. Iverson and Drew Gooden for Tony Parker and Zaza Pachulia. This seems like really low returns for A.I. since Parker does not shoot the three, is not a top ball hawk, and dishes about half as many assists per game.

3. Iverson and Kevin Martin for Kobe Bryant and Andre Iguodala. Brilliant. Sure, Kobe is an injury risk, but here is a GM who is thinking. You sell high on Kevin Martin, and in trading away Iverson, you land the player who stands to gain the most from his departure. The Iggy Era has begun in Philly!

Unbalanced trades:

Someone landed a package of Jason Terry and Rasheed Wallace for Iverson. Considering his current limbo state, that is not a bad package. Of course in the end it depends on your league’s settings. Someone else landed Mike Bibby and Mehmut Okur. Bibby is likely to play hurt all year, so I personally would prefer the Terry/Sheed deal.

Someone else managed to trade Iverson and Mikael Pietrus and landed Shawn Marion! Question: if you spent a top three pick on Marion, why would you trade him at all?

If you have Iverson on your fantasy team and you are looking to trade him away, hopefully the above examples give you some ideas to work off of. The “stand pat” alternative is to hope he gets traded soon, and lands on a team where he can thrive.

Good luck!