About Tony's injury and future

[Red2]

it's earl barron time baby! sign him to a 10 day or maybe chuck semb. Forget about tony allen- that fool is done and done the immediate question out of all this is now we only have 11 active players including giddens. I think we can go a few days before we have to sign someone but as we saw wit phoenix recently we're going to need to have 12 active players on our roster.

[humblebum]

I still maintain that TA, if he's able to come back healthy come playoff time, will have a definite role on this team. It could have possibly been better if we could have moved him in a deal that resulted in a significant upgrade at his or another position but that didn't happen. So now you have to hope that Tony is able to come back unless you're stuck in the dreamworld where Giddens, Pruitt or Walker are better, more ready players. TA is the best we've got off the bench defensively... he's capable of making the best players work for their scores...

Offensively the guy is a loose cannon but he's also very aggressive and he makes things happen for good or ill. If you bring in a guy who can actually handle the ball a la Marbury than TA can just focus on catching the ball in good spots putting one or two dribbles down and attacking the rim... that's his game but he's been unable to focus on THAT because he has to ballhandle for Eddie House when they're paired together. AND TA is a bad backcourt match with Rondo... with Marbury, Tony would be in a closer to ideal scenario and IMO he'd be much more valuable to the team in that role.

An analogy would help... Consider James Posey. He's a solid role player, doesn't make too many mistakes shoots defends, etc. Now ask him to the primary ball handler and playmaker for this Celtics bench... what happens? Your opinion of Posey will suffer just as his play suffers because he's being asked to do things he's incapable of. That's essentially what has happened with Tony. Get him into a better role for his skill set and your opinion of him will improve.

[Jammer]

TA has been fine, he is productive and the only plus defender we have on the bench. The weaknesses of other players don't change that.

TA is the best bench player we have and that was pretty evident last night when we faced a team with a good bench who turned us out. I would like someone better than Tony to be our best bench player but that isn't his fault.

Tony Allen was really missed last night.

Would have loved to see him take on Ronnie Brewer or Deron Williams.

[Celts17Pride]

If Tony was not a possibility for the playoffs then they could apply for an injured player roster exemption, not an issue when you have two open roster spots and at that point Tony's season would be over. This is what Boston did last season with Pollard so they could add PJ Brown.

That's not correct. We carried an open roster spot out of training camp, and cut Brandon Wallace to open a 2nd roster spot. PJ and Sam took the 14th and 15th roster spots. There was no roster exemption, and Pollard remained on the 15 man roster on the 3 man inactive list, along with Scal and Pruitt, for most of the playoffs.

I agree, the Celtics didn't have an injured player roster exemption last season. Chakdaddy is correct. The Celtics only had 14 healthy players for the playoffs. Pollard was on the roster the whole season.

[Kids Are Alright]

The TA - GG comparison doesn't work. Tony isn't a good team offensive player (unless he's driving and dishing on the penetration), but he can create offense if he's playing with a point guard and his defense is very good, he can defend an athletic player 3" taller pretty effectively and while I'm at it, he's the 2nd best at steals per minute on the team behind RR.(he may be better).

Doc says that Tony was our biggest bench player in terms of importance, I don't think he was shopping him when he said that.

Regarding the Spurs superb bench, they didn't go from being on the bottom of the NBA in one year to the top (w/o a decent lottery pick). Obviously, that's gonna cost you depth.

[NES 247]

I've had it with Tony Allen. He's become injury prone is a turnover machine who makes stupid deceions. He has no outside game, and he is only effective when he drives to the basket, and then half the time he is stripped or makes an extra stupid pass instead of taking it to the rim. His defense is lacking and Ainge was crazy thinking he could even be half of what James Posey was. Its sad that TA is considered our best player off the bench.