Larry Kuzniewski
Tony Allen, destroyer of worlds, maybe a starter, maybe not.
For the second straight game, Dave Joerger tried something new on Saturday night against the Philadelphia 76ers. Against Toronto, the starting lineup had been Mike Conley, Tony Allen, newly-acquired Jeff Green, Zach Randolph, and Marc Gasol, moving Courtney Lee to the bench, hypothetically as a shooting/scoring 6th man. Despite the fact that the Grizzlies won that game, it didn’t really work out too well, with the starters struggling to score against a Raptors defense that packed the paint and with Lee never really getting going, attempting only three shots in 30 minutes of play.
Saturday night brought another starting lineup: Conley, Lee, Green, Randolph, and Gasol, moving Tony Allen to the bench.
It shouldn’t have looked too strange to Griz fans; Allen came off the bench the entire latter part of last season after he missed a long stretch due to injury and Lee, who was traded to the Grizzlies in January, fit in nicely enough alongside starting forward Tayshaun Prince to earn the spot in Allen’s absence. Given that there had already been rumors about TA while he was out hurt—that he was being held out because the Grizzlies were trying to trade him, that he was more injured than the team had announced he was (this was more true than anyone realized at the time), that he didn’t like Dave Joerger and instead of playing basketball had devoted his time to playing games of Diplomacy via email and was planning on retiring from basketball to finish his campaign as Austria-Hungary (I just made this one up—can you tell I’ve been reading about the Habsburgs lately?).
That Allen returned from injury to play some of the best basketball of his career should surprise no one. His legs were fresh while everyone else’s started to fade down the stretch of the season, and when the Grizzlies had to face Oklahoma City in the first round, Allen gave Kevin Durant such fits over the course of an epic seven-game series that the generally-docile OKC fans almost turned on him. (Remember the Mr. Unreliable headline that the newspaper actually apologized for?)
Over the summer, a slightly different picture began to emerge among folks In The Know. Allen had played spectacularly, and had helped the team almost eliminate the 2nd-seeded Thunder from contention (and, without a Zach Randolph Game 7 suspension, maybe that would’ve been even closer to happening). But behind the scenes, he wasn’t happy about being demoted from his starting role, almost to the point of being a distraction. Given that the Grizzlies locker room is so close-knit, having a guy like TA be unhappy probably soured the mood a little bit, but the other leaders on the team—Conley, Gasol, and Randolph—never seemed to let it get to them. (Randolph, after all, is probably the only guy on Earth that can just flat-out tell TA what to do. Sit close enough to the Griz bench for long enough and eventually you’ll hear him yell at Allen, “Quit taking so many [expletive] jumpshots!” or something similar. I’ve yet to see TA fail to comply.)
All of that is setup for this: moving Allen to the bench now has benefits, and it has drawbacks.
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Larry Kuzniewski
The addition of Jeff Green has given the Griz more options at the wing positions.
The benefits should be pretty obvious: Allen is a limited offensive player. Not a bad one, but certainly a limited one. With Allen on the floor, the opposing defense is really guarding between four and four and a half players, cutting off Allen’s cutting lanes and making sure he has to settle for long jumpers. Sometimes he hits them, sure, but given the choice, defenses have always and will always leave Allen wide open in the corners. Moving him to the bench in favor of starting Green at the small forward spot gives the Grizzlies size and athleticism at that spot (though TA’s athleticism can’t be denied) but it also gives a little more scoring punch to a starting five that hasn’t had real scoring punch at the wings since OJ Mayo’s rookie year when he was dropping 30 on folks. Bringing Allen off the bench and playing him based on matchups allows his offensive limitations to be shifted to a different phase of the game, while also allowing his defensive prowess to be unleashed on second units, which he disrupts with the aplomb of a redneck fishing with dynamite.
There are drawbacks, though. It may seem like Trick Or Treat Tony Allen has finally started to commit more Tricks than Treats this season, but that’s ignoring some pretty spectacular Treats. I’ve always felt like I was in the minority of Griz watchers because I view Allen as more of a utility player, a guy who isn’t necessarily going to play 20 minutes a night, but who might play 30 or 35 when it’s justified. This year he has excelled in that role—when the matchup is right. When he’s guarding a scorer who handles the ball, at positions 1 through 3, there are very few who are better. (Usually I say LeBron, but LeBron hasn’t been LeBron this year.) When he’s got to stay home on a shooter and not gamble for steals or help onto the ball handler, the results have been slightly worse this year than in past years, and they were hit-or-miss in past years.
Larry Kuzniewski
Dave Joerger seems pretty happy about having options.
The Grizzlies are in a fortunate situation: they can mix and match wing players into the starting lineup as matchups dictate. I tend to think that against almost every matchup, Courtney Lee and Tony Allen are the right two guys to start. Green gives a new offensive angle but I’m not sure losing Allen’s defense against teams with a major scoring threat is worth the tradeoff, at least not yet. Against teams with big small forwards, like LeBron James or Carmelo Anthony when he plays the 3, I think Green is the right call, but I’d still start Lee with him for spacing reasons. Green/Allen is a combo that should be used sparingly, like bay leaves. Sometimes bay leaves make things taste awesome. Sometimes you accidentally end up with one in your mouth and you have to spit it out.
I don’t think Tony Allen’s move to the bench will be a permanent one—at least I hope not. The Griz are finally at a place where no starting wing rotation has to be permanent. It’s smart of Joerger to use the run-up to the All-Star break to experiment with lineups—especially since Green is still so new to the team—and see who works best in what role. But I hope that going forward, Allen isn’t diminished just because of rote, press conference sound byte reasons like “Jeff Green just really gives us a chance to score” or “we like Tony’s energy off the bench.” Joerger, and the Grizzlies, are smarter than that, and I think they know it. Using all of these guys in the right way will be the key to how far the Grizzlies get in their pursuit of this year’s NBA title.
