Mencius, if any also ran team signs Iverson for marketing purposes, why would they not play him 40 minutes per night?
This I agree with. Makes no sense for an also ran to sign him and then not play him. Perhaps Memphis plan was to play him a lot, but then he didn't play at all the entire preseason, and then immediately complained about minutes in his first game back from injury. Two games later, he quit. Not enough data to determine what, exactly, Memphis had intended with him. To me, when you're a young developing team, the kind of vets you want to have around are solid professionials after whom the young guys can pattern themselves. Not me first guys who only look to get their own. At best, Iverson might have had a hot hand a few games over the season and won the team a couple extra games, which might be just enough to drop them a couple of lotto positions.
A guy like that is not a good professional for the youngins to pattern themselves after, but casual fans might be attracted to come to games just because of the name recognition. And, him playing a lot of minutes on a young developing team just takes away development minutes from your young guys. He really doesn't move your team any closer to a goal of becoming a championship contender. He actually moves you slightly away from it, even if he actually wins you an extra game or two. Hence, marketing gimmick.
On the other hand, on a true contender, with strong veteran leadership, he might, MIGHT, be inclined to accept a role, and be quite effective at it. It's doubtful that he'd do that, as everybody has seen what he's about from day one... but only a team with a legit shot at a title now ought to even entertain the idea of bringing him in, and they'd have to have very clear signals from him that he knows what his role will be, embraces the notion fully, AND you have the backing of the move by your vet stars, coaches, GM, and ownership. Those are long odds, so it's not likely to happen, but I still think that only for a contender does he make any sense in terms of actual basketball contributions. His window, like many old vets, is right now. Going anywhere other than a team that has a possibility to win a championship this year does not contribute to that team moving closer to a championship.
