Decision Time, Part 4: The Question Mark
By Sean
For a brief period in his rookie campaign, Tony Allen had me convinced the Celtics found their shutdown defending, fast breaking, boom dunking, chaos inducing swingman of the future. Swingbot 3000. This, incidentally, was also about the time Jiri Welsch had both my wife and I convinced Boston had found its surly Slavic sharpshooter/bon vivant of the future. In the latter instance, Gavrilo Princip’s place in history – if not Celtics lore – is secure.
All by way of saying I may be historically, epically wrong about Tony Allen. Going into his third season with a club option pending, a criminal trial looming, and a reconstructed knee still anchoring his once explosive game, Allen has managed to wear the “chaotic” label comfortably, if not necessarily in the fashion the club anticipated. When he unexpectedly worked his way into the starting lineup during the second half of his rookie year, his future seemed secure. Frenetic defense and boundless athleticism were not especially that squad’s calling card, Mark Blount excepted (and he always should be, on several grounds). What Allen lacked in experience, understanding, and ballhandling, he made up for in indiscriminate fits of … leaping, by some appearances uncontrollably.
Nonetheless, the last of the 2004 first round picks went into the summer of 2005 with what seemed the most defined place in the rotation among the three. Delonte West was coming off a rookie season virtually uninterrupted by good health, and Al Jefferson – while flashing the potential that has made him a whipping boy ever since – was still too raw to be relied upon for other than five personal fouls per one-half Tommy Point. By contrast, Allen had assumed a (tentative) starting role, led the rookie team with 17 points in the All-Star weekend challenge (the Celtics’ lone representative), and later averaged nearly 17 points and 56% shooting in the 2005 Reebok Summer League. For all the misdirected hype and practice court potential, it gets lost that Tony Allen was, by some good measure, at the head of his rookie class.
And then, like a Brian Scalabrine dribble-drive, it all fell apart. In August, some two months before training camp, Allen was involved in what polite company terms an “altercation,” though an early-morning fistfight and shoot-up outside something called the “White Palace Grill” is more aptly termed “WTF?!?!”. In September, Allen had arthroscopic surgery to repair torn cartilage in his right knee, imperiling his availability for the early half of the season. And in October, just before the break of camp, Allen was arrested for aggravated battery in connection with the aforementioned altercation, thus imperiling his availability over the next 10-12 years.
While Allen rehabilitated his knee (if not his image) and the criminal charges shuffled along, the 2005-06 Celtics roared to a 13-18 start before his return on January 6th, thus imperiling nothing. Allen, however, returned as a shadow of his former self, no doubt assisted by the Celtics’ curious attempt to turn a 6’4” jackrabbit with a pugilist’s handle into a part-time point guard. To be fair, Allen is an able distributor, but Dan Dickau he is not (that, oddly, is not a compliment in this context). We can only guess at the cauldrons of cough syrup Doc and Danny must have slammed on the team charter before making the Dimetapp Roster Move of the season. They should probably start checking their luggage.
Allen not only struggled to reclaim his spot in the lineup (since lost when Pierce slid to the two-guard following Szczerbiak’s acquisition), he suffered to regain his game. Where he once exploded on the court without aim but with apparent purpose, his game now had all the flow of an enlarged prostate. Gone were the ball hawking put-backs, the fast breaks finished with determination, the badgering defense, all replaced by the backwash of apprehension. His indecision and self-doubt was the mirror image of Brian Scalabrine’s concentrated, laser-beaming incompetence, though both were a net loss.
Most attributed this tentativeness to a shaken faith in his reconstructed right knee, and that surely played a huge part. Where his athleticism could previously compensate for inexperience and a still-evolving game, the gimpy knee left him seemingly undressed, and his almost visible fear reflected this understanding. But his indeterminate role and place in the “future” also contributed. Gone was the Ricky Davis yang to his yin (traded shortly after Allen’s return in January), gone was the starting spot, emergent were other members of the Celtics’ young fraternity; Allen, whose role was previously so well-defined, was seemingly adrift.
Toward the end of the season glimpses of Allen 1.0 resurfaced. In a late season loss to the Lakers he appeared to rise to the challenge of Kobe Bryant, reembracing his stubborn, pestering defense. You’re going to have to trust me on this, as Kobe bore his way to 43 exceptionally annoying, over-inflated points that night, but when Allen was locked up man-to-man, he gave Bryant fits. He finished the game with 4 blocks and 2 steals, and it was perhaps no coincidence that he also turned in one of his most efficient offensive performances of the season with 18 points. Most revealingly, he got to the free throw line 9 times in 29 minutes, evidence that his assertiveness on defense carried over to the offensive end as well.
Still, it’s safe to say the Celtics have little or no idea what they have in Tony Allen, which is likely why he is the only remaining 2004 draftee not to have his option year picked up. A decision is due October 31st, and though the Boston Herald’s Steve Bulpett reported last week (in a futile attempt to beat me to the story) that the club had decided to exercise the option, no official announcement was forthcoming. More recent quotes indicate Ainge is still very much undecided. Still, chances are the option will be picked up, if only to make Allen a more tradeable commodity (with another year of his very reasonable rookie contract an enticement to any team looking to acquire affordable assets, thus excepting only the Knicks).
It goes without saying, then, that if the Celtics don’t yet know what they have in Allen, they likely have no idea where he fits into the “plan” (presupposing a “plan”). Could he build on his promising rookie season, adding a more consistent shot and a more coherent offensive game, he’d fit in quite nicely going forward. It’s not unreasonable to think Allen can be a 15-20 ppg scorer in this league, which, on top of his defense and associated gunplay, would make him something of a slighter and more athletic Ron Artest. That, of course, is the ceiling. The floor is, well … when you’re facing prison time, virtually bottomless.
A healthy, engaged, unincarcerated Allen would prove immensely valuable to the Celtics. Not only would it increase his return on the trade market, it would allow the Celtics to move one of their more “conventionally” tradeable commodities instead (think Gerald Green). Unfortunately, what action he’s seen this preseason has done little to settle the quandary. With the arrival of Sebastian Telfair and Rajon Rondo at the PG, he’s fighting for scraps at the SG (with West assuming most of the backup minutes here). His best chance to see the court with any consistency may be backing up Szczerbiak at the SF, particularly with Rivers’ stated intention to go small more often this season; his worst chance to see the court from the Cook County jail (not sure of the rotation here, but defense will come surely come in handy).
If this column left you many minutes poorer and no richer in understanding Tony Allen’s place with the Celtics, you’re in good company. Or at the very least Danny Ainge’s. This season will likely see the “fish or cut bait” moment for a few other of the Celtics’ young tacklebox, Allen foremost among them. For the sake of this extended metaphor, Tony Allen, and a front office that desperately needs to reel something in, it’s a pregnant moment indeed.
