He averaged 17.1 points, 6.5 rebounds and 5.8 assists last season on a 27-55 team last season. He and LeBron James, who will invade the Wells Fargo Center with his new Miami team tonight, were the only players in the league to average at least 17 points, six rebounds and five assists.
James is a superstar, whose addition turns a mediocre team into a championship contender. And just about all of the NBA titleholders in recent memory have had at least one superstar on the roster, with the exception of Larry Brown's 2004 Detroit Pistons - though the following season they did have four All-Stars.
Fairly, Iguodala is not the superstar player who can lead a team to a title, or far in the playoffs. He is, quite frankly, the biggest band- aid on this Sixers team that is filled with smaller ones. It is a roster that doesn't fit together very well, is void of a dominant inside player and will have a 20-year-old running the point, Jrue Holiday.
"Andre is a star at what he does best, which is defending, rebounding, getting assists and scoring some points," said Doug Collins, who will make his debut as the Sixers' coach tonight. "He's a star that way. People view stars in the league as guys that put up 25 to 30 points a night and their team goes deep in the playoffs.
"I've been very happy with what 'Dre has done for us and he has done everything I've asked him to do."
Iguodala will earn $13.7 million this year, a figure that will go up about $1 million in each of the next three seasons. But for Sixers fans, or anyone else, to view him as a player to build around, well, that is just a gross mistake.
So if Iguodala is not an upper-echelon star to build around, then do the Sixers have enough other pieces to make them a contender in an Eastern Conference which has changed dramatically from last season?
It just doesn't appear so.
