Post#23 » by billfromBoston » Fri Apr 3, 2009 3:02 pm
Forget the off-court stuff for a second:
Ray Allen was the 3rd option in Boston's half-court offense for the first two rounds of the playoffs. Allen, who had destroyed Cleveland during the regular season, became the focal point of Mike Brown's defensive scheme - the idea being that if they could eliminate Ray, Cleveland's bigs could do enough to limit KG and Boston would be reduced to Pierce vs. LeBron.
Allen was getting most of his shots in the 2nd half of the shot clock and was being run off very rudimentary baseline screen left/right and then being allowed to make a P&R read if it was there off the catch and no shoot. Aside from that, Ray was a kick-out option spotting up at the 3 point line.
Result, Ray took less than 7 shots per game in that Cleveland series, as Cleveland trapped Ray off the screen and brought a help defender to cover the roll man while they denied Allen the shot, pass, or dribble penetration - Allen wisely moved the ball around the horn on a majority of his touches and rarely got a clean look at the basket.
That series prompted Ray to make an off-hand comment about needing the ball in order to score and stated that it was the job of Rondo and the team to put him in positions to score. At that point NINETY PERCENT of this board said " Ray's old! He's finished! Now he's making excuses for why he can't play anymore!"
But...low and behold - Ray's frustration pays off as Boston bumps him up the food chain and starts getting him looks earlier in the shot clock - often becoming THE primary option with the first pass of the half-court set. After grinding out the first couple games of the Detroit series, Ray goes **** the last 10 games of the playoffs and the rest is history.
Ray's "slump" in Cleveland precipitated Doc and the team re-evaluating Ray's role in the offense. Since that frustrated comment by Ray, he has been the team's 2nd option in the offense and the dividends have been tremendous.
Ray will be utilized differently in the Cleveland series this year - if the team gets that far - and he'll be much better than he was last year.
