Ray Allen predictions

[DefenseWins]

Honestly 12ppg should be decent. He hits 3's... that's like 4 3's a game. Even 9ppg honestly would benefit us.

But yeah when this guy is hot, no one can stop us. I loved watching him in the Boston vs NY series a few years back in the playoffs. He made them absolutely pay. No one could cover him.

His conditioning is another story as to why no one can keep up with him lol.

But this is assuming he stays healthy. Though even when he wasn't healthy he was tough at times against us.

[sonicFLAME6]

The biggest factor of having a guy like Ray Allen is, he's not afraid to take a big shot and more important, he shoots lights out from the free throw line. You can put him in at the end of games to secure leads with free throws or if you need a big bucket you can design a play for him. Big time performer.

[SmushedPennies]

Good points. Our shooters have mostly been afraid of even remotely big shots, the kind Ray thrives on. Jones was our most fearless shooter, but he's just not that good and is extremely one dimensional.

I actually just typed "Ray Allen Complete Highlights" into youtube and am currently going to town. I think is pull-up game is undermentioned. He's automatically our best spot up and pull up shooter in my opinion. Its going to be a completely new dimension in our offense. He can be a pretty effective scoring guard for spurts still, with the right screens and spacing.

[SmushedPennies]

Came upon this full highlight vid of bone spur Ray from March (you can see the extra tape on his ankle). Not too shabby.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEv-916Aw3c&NR[/youtube]

[Shv3d]

The biggest factor of having a guy like Ray Allen is, he's not afraid to take a big shot and more important, he shoots lights out from the free throw line. You can put him in at the end of games to secure leads with free throws or if you need a big bucket you can design a play for him. Big time performer.

This team can always use more clutch free throw shooting, remember how bad it was in every round except the Finals?

[SinceGatlingWasARookie]

How about this silly unit for 8 minutes a game? Lewis at center, James at power forward, Ray Allen at small forward, Wade off guard, Chalmers at point guard.

Very small line up that can be pushed around but if Allen and Lewis can shoot from 3 like they used to that unit could be incredibly efficient scoring. Wade and James would have so much floor space to work with. It finds a way to get ray Allen some time without taking away minutes from Chalmers and Norris Cole.

I can't predict what Miller and Battier will do this year but I think Norris and Chalmers are still getting better and deserve some minutes.

[tsherkin]

I'm looking forward to Ray getting a chance to play reduced minutes in the RS so that he can actually be healthy for the PS. If he's healthy, he'll crush those open shots he'll be getting.

[Mars]

I'm looking forward to Ray getting a chance to play reduced minutes in the RS so that he can actually be healthy for the PS. If he's healthy, he'll crush those open shots he'll be getting.

Reduced minutes combined with not having to run curls off 1,000 screens every offensive possession should absolutely pay huge dividends for him come May and June.

[SinceGatlingWasARookie]

Reduced minutes should help Wade be sharper in the playoffs.

Coaches sometimes care more about a few extra regular season wins than they should and play their starters more than they should. If Wade plays 38 mpg because that is what coaches other than Popovich do, that leaves 10 minutes for Ray Allen unless Wade plays point guard or Ray Allen plays Small Forward. I see that Spoelstra has been better than most coaches at not overplaying stars and did not been play Wade 38 mpg last year.

If Ray Allen is healthy you would think he would play at least 20 mpg. You would not want to waste Ray Allen and he may not be happy playing very little if he is healthy.

Chalmers and particularly Norris Cole need to play to develop their game more and prove their worthiness to earn a big NBA contract. If I had a 30% chance of hitting the lottery for millions of dollars and some guy called coach did things that reduced my odds of hitting the lottery big, I would not be happy with that guy called coach.

If Wade was reduced to 28 minutes a game would Wade become unhappy? The Heat should be able to Win most games with Wade playing 28 minutes.

If Miller, Battier, Lewis and Haslem were healthy and did not receive much playing time would they get unhappy?

If everybody is healthy a lot of people will get less minutes than you would expect players of their quality to get.

[tsherkin]

Reduced minutes combined with not having to run curls off 1,000 screens every offensive possession should absolutely pay huge dividends for him come May and June.

I doubt that was actually a huge problem for him. I think playing through the bone spurs instead of letting them heal was a much bigger problem than that, and once he can sort that out (and lightening his minutes load, as mentioned), he'll be just fine. Yeah, he'll get a whole bunch of spot-ups as well, and the Heat won't stress him out pace-wise either. Should be good.

[RexBoyWonder]

^^

At PG : Mario-28, Cole-12, Wade-8
At SG : Wade-22, Allen-26, Harris

done

[Mars]

I doubt that was actually a huge problem for him. I think playing through the bone spurs instead of letting them heal was a much bigger problem than that, and once he can sort that out (and lightening his minutes load, as mentioned), he'll be just fine. Yeah, he'll get a whole bunch of spot-ups as well, and the Heat won't stress him out pace-wise either. Should be good.

Oh, without question it was playing with bone spurs that was Ray's issue late in the regular season on through the conference finals. And he's still fully capable of running off screens all game long; even at age 37.

I'll just be surprised if he'll need to rely on it as much in the Heat offensive structure. Not with the wide open spot-ups that Chalmers, Battier, Miller, JJ, and even the likes of Bibby managed to get the past two seasons.

[DWadeno3]

^^

At PG : Mario-28, Cole-12, Wade-8
At SG : Wade-22, Allen-26, Harris

done

You want to play a 37-year-old Allen 26 minutes, whereas a younger Wade only plays 30 and an even younger Chalmers even 28 minutes? That doesn't make a lot of sense. Let Ray be around 18 MPG, Wade at around 35, Chalmers at around 33 and Cole at around 10, because I wanna see him justify those minutes first on a consistent basis before he receives more. The playoffs are the time when you want to see Ray on the court for longer stretches and you'll cut down on Cole's minutes (or Chalmers' in case Cole outplays him during the RS or in the respective game).

[heatwillbeback]

I keep finding myself disappointed in not getting a quality back up big man this offeseason, but then I came back to the realization that we got a prime time player in Ray Allen.

I think he will be huge. I do worry about Wade guarding pg's when they play minutes together (which they will), but its a good problem to have. He just is going to fit like a glove offensively.

I predict 14 ppg in like 25 mpg.

[Heats_Finest]

People keep talking about where we'll find minutes for Allen. I think you'll see a lot of Chalmers/Wade/Allen/Lebron/Bosh, sure it's small, but teams will have to be scoring at a very high efficiency to keep up with that HEAT lineup. On offense it's absolutely deadly, and on defense it's still good, Bosh is a much improved defenders, Lebron as we know is close to the best in the game, Allen is serviceable, but the let down defensively in this group, Wade is exceptional when switched on, and Chalmers is very good defensively, allthough a bone head at times.

I'd say we'll see that lineup A LOT this year.

Anyway, as both Riley and Spo have said, we're trying to become virtually positionless, which theoretically is possible. Positions are just something for supporters to see, but you don't have to have a natural center or point guard on the floor, the system that people have is a template, whether it's the most effective template isn't known, each team has their own unique templates that work for them. For Miami it might be Wade/Allen/Lebron/Shard/Bosh, do we even need a "PG" on the floor? I don't think Wade/Lebron/Bosh need a pure point creating shots for them, and I think they're good enough to find open team mates out of doubles, and through their great vision that Wade and especially Lebron have.

[SmushedPennies]

You're right. I've been really excited about the prospect of lineups with the Big 3 + Allen and Chalmers or Lewis. So potential for high-potency.

Reduced minutes should help Wade be sharper in the playoffs.

Coaches sometimes care more about a few extra regular season wins than they should and play their starters more than they should. If Wade plays 38 mpg because that is what coaches other than Popovich do, that leaves 10 minutes for Ray Allen unless Wade plays point guard or Ray Allen plays Small Forward. I see that Spoelstra has been better than most coaches at not overplaying stars and did not been play Wade 38 mpg last year.

If Ray Allen is healthy you would think he would play at least 20 mpg. You would not want to waste Ray Allen and he may not be happy playing very little if he is healthy.

Chalmers and particularly Norris Cole need to play to develop their game more and prove their worthiness to earn a big NBA contract. If I had a 30% chance of hitting the lottery for millions of dollars and some guy called coach did things that reduced my odds of hitting the lottery big, I would not be happy with that guy called coach.

If Wade was reduced to 28 minutes a game would Wade become unhappy? The Heat should be able to Win most games with Wade playing 28 minutes.

If Miller, Battier, Lewis and Haslem were healthy and did not receive much playing time would they get unhappy?

If everybody is healthy a lot of people will get less minutes than you would expect players of their quality to get.

I don't think this team will have an issue playing time. Everyone has their eyes on the big picture. They signed on to be a part of a winning team, no matter what. They understand this team's depth, and appreciate the presence of the other guys who may hamper their minutes.

Ray/Wade eating each other's minutes will never be a problem. The reason why is Spo would love to have the two on the court as much as possible, and we will indeed see games in the playoffs (if health allows) where each play in the high-30s, minute-wise. Ray is our fourth-best player on paper. Spo will find ways to get him on the court with our best guys. Wade/Ray can play together as the wings, with Dwyane actually guarding the bigger wing (wouldn't work against bigger SFs like Durant and Melo) since he has a huge wingspan, outweighs most SFs, and has successfully guarded SFs in the past (hell, Daequan Cook did a respectable job of guarding LeBron while he was here. Most teams go to small lineups with their big SF at PF and a guard at the 3 anyway. Other times, Wade can guard any point, he would just rather not do it full-time.

Even if Dwyane was reduced to playing 28 minutes, he'd love it if we were winning. I think you're underestimating our players mental approach.