At the NBA regular season’s midpoint, we are grading each Memphis Grizzlies player based on his performance and progress through the first half of the season. Today we grade Tony Allen
Tony Allen has been the spirit animal of an entire fanbase for half a decade now. It was he who coined the Grint and Grind mantra and it was he who defined the relentless, steel-spined philosophy that became the proud identity of the Memphis Grizzlies.
Yet it was also Allen, who, along with the Grizzlies’ signature smash-mouth playing style, seemed increasingly out of place and irrelevant during the Grizzlies’ disheartening start to the season. No one ever doubted the Grindfather’s hustle or heart, but the early season struggles began to indicate that the league may no longer have any use for a defensive specialist whose offensive limitations are so blatant that they practically make his position of “shooting guard” a cruel irony.
Too many times when Allen received a pass on the perimeter, or even in a mid-range shooting area, no defender could be found within ten feet of TA as he launched and clanked another missed shot off the rim, grimacing.
Earlier in the season Allen candidly stated that grit and grind may be fading away, and Allen, too, all but faded away as his playing time diminished. Outside of the probable event of racking up more DNP-CD’s, Allen’s future with the team was unclear.
And then Tony did what he always does: he fought back and fearlessly brandished his Trick-or-Treat game and stuck it to anyone who dared stop him.
He proved he has not lost a step on defense. He proved he can still lock down his man and force turnovers to create fastbreaks. Best of all, he proved he can finish fast breaks with the successes of rim-rocking dunks instead of the misadventures of rim-rocking failed layups.
Due to the rough start to the 2015-16 season, Allen’s scoring statistics have dipped a bit from last season with a per-game average of 6.8 points, down from last year’s 8.6, and his slash line for the season is .420/.360/.616 compared to last year’s .495/.345/.627. However, this past month, Allen has averaged 10.0 points per game on a significantly better slash line of .489/.625/.730.
Over that 12-game span, Tony played 31.6 minutes per game, and yes, you read that stat correctly, Allen shot nearly 63 percent from beyond the three-point line. Most importantly, the Grizzlies won precisely 75 percent of their games for the month of January, thanks in part to the adrenaline shot of inserting Allen back in the rotation.
While some of the past month’s success was aided by a relatively favorable schedule, there is no question that the recent resurgence of Tony Allen has been a desperately needed boon for the Memphis Grizzlies, and it’s indisputable that the team’s tougher to beat when Tony’s out there frenetically doing Tony-type things.
It remains to be seen if the Grizzlies can hide Allen’s offensive imperfections and prevent them from being exploited by elite teams like the Golden State Warriors, San Antonio Spurs, and the Cleveland Cavaliers, but the Grizzlies are clearly a better more competitive team when they are highlighting his strengths rather than trying to completely hide him by relegating him to the end of the bench.
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Tony Allen continues to stand out as one of the league’s preeminent defenders, and you can expect for him to build on the great month he had in January.
Grade so far:
B-
Highlight of the season so far:
Allen’s best game so far may have been his 15-point, 10-rebound, 2-steal effort in a thrilling win over the Celtics on January 10th. He had an emphatic steal-and-slam, and he also flew in for a monstrous tip-slam. Both are worth another look