Tony must get more burn after this game

[IEcelticfan]

F you, Doc. Here's an idea: Play Ray2 26-32min max, PP 33-34min max and give Tony the rest of the SG/SF minutes, at least until we ease 'quis in a few weeks. hell, even give Billy 5-10min.

For all his low-BBIQ and his weird-lookin shot, turnover-prone self, I appreciate this TA with his guts/balls/athleticism he showed today.

Tony is the ALLEN that should play more.

(that is, until 'quis is back and/or we get more help come trade time)

[FeedReed]

hell yea. ta makes things happen. sometimes not in a good way, but he's the man right now entering the prime of his career. give him more minutes.

[return2glory]

I'm all for TA getting more minutes and Ray getting about 3-5 minutes less than he has been playing. TA gives us something that this team lacks, aggressiveness. Rondo and TA are the only players on this team that drive to the basket on a regular basis. It's nice to see especially when we have become a jump shooting team.

I also would love to see play Walker about 5-10 minutes. TA and Walker bring aggressiveness and energy to this team.

[JSABleedsGreen]

Why would not play him after what he did in the first half on Kobe? The man was man-handling Kobe on the defensive side and then he was taking Kobe to the rim. So you reward him by letting him play out the 2Q. Then Doc plays the starters almost the entire 3Q and then brings TA in. TA makes a bad pass to Ray and then you yank him in the next play, that's how you reward the guy who with Rondo got you back in this game.

Doc is terrible minutes guy! TERRIBLE. Ray still played 33 minutes even though he sat the entire 2Q. TERRIBLE.

None of the Big "Old" 3 should be playing more than 30 minutes. Rasheed should not be playing more than 20. He's got nothing left in the tank. Nothing. Honestly....I'd give Scal 10 minutes and give 15 to sheed. At least Scal moves on defense......there's no way Scal lets Gasol make that ball fake and then dunk from the top of the key.

[Hemingway]

If I were coaching this team I would do anything I could not to play Tony. We are in a bind right now because MD is out and we need to showcase Tony for potential trades, but the guy is just not a viable option for us out there. Look at his non turnover plays, a lot of times he throws the ball to someone with a few seconds left on the clock and forces them to make the turnover or take the bad shot.

He is playing ok for his abilities and his D at least keeps him alive on this roster, but I would not advocate playing him more when we need wins.

[JSABleedsGreen]

If I were coaching this team I would do anything I could not to play Tony. We are in a bind right now because MD is out and we need to showcase Tony for potential trades, but the guy is just not a viable option for us out there. Look at his non turnover plays, a lot of times he throws the ball to someone with a few seconds left on the clock and forces them to make the turnover or take the bad shot.

He is playing ok for his abilities and his D at least keeps him alive on this roster, but I would not advocate playing him more when we need wins.

1) So who spells Ray and Pierce while Daniels is out? 2) would you play Ray 35+ minutes a night even though you know he's done?

There are going to be games when TA should not be a viable option, you are absolutely right with that. He's not as polished as Daniels on the offense. His jumper is suspect. You do have to agree with me here though. When he was playing his heart out yesterday on the D and O side of the ball....did you not want to see him in there more in the second half? rather than see Ray fall apart on D and on O?

Yesterday was one of the days when TA should have played and Ray should have sat. Maybe not every night or even every other night....but yesterday was the one day of the week TA should have played more.

[darrendaye]

Tony Allen is a very challenging player to coach. There is almost no denying that. But if you genuinely watch him play with an unbiased eye, you will recognize a host of things the guy does that are very beneficial to the team and some that are sorely lacking elsewhere on the roster.

Let's get the bad stuff out of the way first. If it is not to penetrate, his ball handling should be kept to a minimum because he is very careless with the basketball and he often loses focus. He has a terrible looking shot and should not be used as a perimeter shooter. His lack of focus will hurt you on occasion with stupid fouls on the defensive end and charging calls on the offensive end. But the instances of such poor play, IMO, are greatly exaggerated by some on this board.

But because of this, as a coach Doc needs to give this extra attention in managing when Tony is in the game. He's got to drill it in Tony's head to give the ball to Rondo to bring the ball upcourt (or Rondo needs to demand it). Also, within the structure of the unit on the court, Doc needs to be aware of what personell is out there and how he can avoid having Tony serve as a kickout shooter. Like I mentioned in the game thread, when Pierce goes into drive and attack mode, Tony should sit. Ultimately, this means, that when Tony's in the game, a focus of the offense should be, in part, to swing the ball to Tony with enough time on the shot clock for him to penetrate or swing the ball back to Rondo (or primary floor general) for another option to be considered. For instance, work House off of picks, if the open look isn't there swing the ball quickly to the other side to shuffle the defense and give Tony a good opportunity to drive to the basket.

As I stated earlier, there are some very beneficial aspects to Tony's game. On this roster, only he and Rondo provide that sudden change of direction ability that leads to a number of steals and tipped passes because of the unpredictability of where they will be when the offensive player makes his pass. Another thing, try watching Tony when a shot goes up on defense. I will wager that Tony has the highest percentage of box out attempts on rebound opportunities. And finally, this team has a lot of tough talkers on its roster, but a lack of actual players with a toughness to their games. Tony, Pierce, and Perk are the only players who actually look for contact when they are around the basket. And Tony and Pierce are the only ones who finish at a solid rate once it occurs. And one silver lining to TA having all of the warts that he does have, he is in no position to warrant an ego about how much he is being used or the number of shots he gets.

[ryaningf]

After yesterday's game, I'm not really sure how anyone can say we shouldn't see more TA and less RA. There were two players that got us back into this game, and one of them was TA.

As I've been saying for a while now, it's time we gave serious consideration to starting TA and making Ray the designated chucker off the bench. We'd improve the scoring off the bench and improve our perimeter defense to begin the game (and our inability to stop dribble penetration is a huge reason as to why we can't get timely stops). I think the Rondo/TA explosion against the Lakers should ease any doubts as to whether we'd have enough perimeter shooting with those two on the court together.

We've developed an imbalance this season, an offensive imbalance leading to too much jump shooting, and a defensive imbalance leaving the perimeter unguarded (coincidentally, it's the jump shooting chuckers on this team who can't guard the perimeter). The only cure, as I see it (until Daniels comes back), is to start TA and bring Ray off the bench. We need a spark of athleticism and penetration on that first unit.

[Ricky_is_god]

I agree, TA should be playing more. I wanted him cut in training camp, but I've been very pleasantly surprised this season. He's not as bad as I remember, but I think its just that he makes very frustrating mistakes. Like turnovers, or fouling jump shooters, or charges. Not just mistakes, but things that kill momentum. But otherwise, he's pretty effective.

But one other negative thing. I don't think I've ever seen a person who is worse at running a fast break than Tony Allen. He is almost a guaranteed turnover at this point. He almost always just runs directly into the defense, without even attempting to fake the defender in any way shape or form. During the game yesterday he got the ball on the break, and i look at my friends and said, turnover. Sure enough he lost the ball. But he managed to get i back; and then just lose it out of bounds.

I know I just spent the whole post hating on him, but I actually think he's all right.

[Lewis35]

This is vintage TA. This is what he does. He will play great in one game out of like 25 and just be poor to average the rest of the time.

I know he played well yesterday but I can almost guarantee he will not play that well again anytime soon. That is why TA is sucks.

[Kids Are Alright]

If I were coaching this team I would do anything I could not to play Tony. We are in a bind right now because MD is out and we need to showcase Tony for potential trades, but the guy is just not a viable option for us out there. Look at his non turnover plays, a lot of times he throws the ball to someone with a few seconds left on the clock and forces them to make the turnover or take the bad shot.

He is playing ok for his abilities and his D at least keeps him alive on this roster, but I would not advocate playing him more when we need wins.

totally opposite of the LA game IMO

[joneb]

I think I'm ready to endorse the idea of starting Tony and bringing Ray off the bench. Let Ray get some burn against 2nd string guards and he'll be much more efficient and reliable than he is now. Tony is a player that thrives on confidence, and an insertion into the starting 5 would be huge for his confidence. As we all know, the Tony Allen that started for the C's a few seasons ago when Pierce had an extended injury, gave us glimpses of his potential to be an impact player in this league. If we can tap into that energy again it would give us a huge boost. Making this move might require some more tinkering with the starting lineup. We might find that having TA, Perk and Rondo together in the lineup leaves us with too little outside shooting to keep defenses honest. So we might have to make the somewhat unpalatable move of swapping Perk and Rasheed in the starting five. If Perk could still play the same number of minutes overall, he might be more enthusiastic about making such a sacrifice for the team.

Bottom line is that we need to shake things up to get more energy into the lineup. If you juggle the lineup and don't get the results that you wanted, you can always go back to the original lineup. I say make a move now. And as a last thought, I'd like to see what Shelden Williams could do to address our glaring rebounding deficiencies. The kid may not have the range of skills that BBD has, but he has shown the ability to be a good rebounder at this level. And maybe Bill Walker should get a few more minutes too. Time to shake things up!

[IEcelticfan]

tonyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy we need yesterday's and today's aggressive and defensive Tony all the time!! cmon Doc, he's earned the minutes!! less eddie, and more Tony!!!!

Yeahh Tonyyyyy!!! we're glad we have you !!!!!!