(This is the third part of an ongoing series where we will grade the Memphis Grizzlies team and franchise for the 2011-2012 season. The first two parts can be found here: Lionel Hollins, Mike Conley Jr.)
You could make the argument that the Memphis Grizzlies rebirth as a franchise started when they acquired Rudy Gay during the 2006 draft. Still others would say that the trade of Pau Gasol is when the team finally turned the page and decided to rebuild.
Personally, I think the Grizzlies evolution came when they traded for Zach Randolph at the 2009 draft. He became the Grizzlies’ second all-star in their history, he led them through to two straight playoff appearances and gave the team someone to build around.
There’s no doubt that the Randolph trade has paid huge dividends, but you could make the argument that the reason that the Grizzlies has went from afterthought to a perennial playoff team was because of “The Grindfather,” Tony Allen.
Allen’s arrival in time for the 2010-2011 season wasn’t met with as much fanfare as some of the other big ticket moves that summer in Miami and Chicago, but his signing was probably the 4th most important one of the summer.
Though he didn’t play much at first, he became the heart and soul of the team, practicing like his hair was on fire and keeping the young guys in line. A guy with a world championship ring tends to have a decent amount of pull on a team full of guys who want one.
Allen was inserted into the starting line-up when Rudy Gay went down, and the Grizzlies never looked back. Allen even gained a level of notoriety as some “experts” began to call him the best perimeter defender in a league which has a lot of them. His defense on Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili, Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook was brilliant, even overcoming some of his offensive shortcomings.
Entering the year, Allen was slated in as a starter and was the team’s rock through Randolph’s injuries. He always drew the other team’s best offensive player and generally always did a good job.
His offense even improved, as he finished 4th on the team in field goal percentage, the best number by a perimeter player. He didn’t take a ton of shots, but he hit the ones that he did take and at times, seemed to be the only guy who seemed to want to drive to the basket, and he did it with some consistency.
His free throw shooting was also crucial, as he finished third on the team in that category, a result related directly to his aggressiveness on offense.
But Allen’s true strength lies in two areas: his defense and his influential Twitter account.
Allen followed up an NBA All-Defense Second Team in 2011 with his first All-Defense first team after this season and finished the season 6th in the NBA’s Defensive Player of the Year voting.
Allen will also go down in history as the man who invented the “All Heart, Grit, Grind” moniker after a win over Oklahoma City in the 2011 regular season. It became the team’s unofficial official slogan as local radio talk shot host Chris Vernon even plastered it on a t-shirt and sold it before games.
Best Game:
Allen scored 20 points against Minnesota just two games after the team lost Zach Randolph for over three months and added in his usual stellar defense as well.
It was a precarious time for the team, as they really needed to win every game against a sub-.500 team that they could. Beating Minnesota isn’t a huge deal under normal circumstances, but that night, and on the road to boot, was one of the biggest wins of the year because the team could have made the best of it, or fallen apart without him.
They made the best of it and while Allen does a lot of things that you can’t quantify in stats, he’s always there and he always plays hard, which in today’s NBA is a skill.
2011-2012 Final Grade: A-