Tony Allen Numbers As Point Guard

I am sorry… Tony Allen is not a point guard.

He literally cannot dribble, pass or shoot. I don’t get it at all. He is a great player and everything, but not even close to a point guard.

We need a veteran back-up at the point.

I think that if you see Tony at teh point, which I do expect will happen if he is healthy, that it will be primarily with either Pierce of Ray Allen actually running the offense and Tony being an offensive shooting guard and a defensive point guard.

I think from a recovery (of his injury) point of view, having TA get most of his minutes at PG may be a good option. TA is obviously a slasher, but to rush him back into that role is definently not a good idea, yet he needs some game time to get his flow and shot back. So perhaps limiting his need to attack the basket at this present time would be much more beneficial in the long run, and playing him at the 1-guard may do just that. Who knows, maybe it will enable him to develop another dimension to his game, maybe a consitent 3pt’er or something like that?

Everybody needs to relax and trust Ainge .With regard to Troy Hudson I’m sure Danny received input from Mc Hale regarding him that convinced him that Hudson might be a disruptive force.

Have faith in Rondo, unlike last year he is being put into a situation to succeed.I have no doubt that he’ll do fine and that we can get 10-15 minutes from Ray, Tony , Pruitt or House.

Most teams would love for that to be their " problem " . Whoever among the point guards that are still available at this late date will most likely be available once the season starts……let’s see how things go before going into full panic mode.

Jeff, I just wrote a long post under the “Fact-checking..” thread created by “Boris Badenov” that addresses both the claim that Tony Allen at the point guard leads to offensive efficiency and the Ray Allen at point guard claim which were the claims Danny was making in his quote. It’s extensive so I didn’t want to repost here.

Danny Ainge is the king of the “reachers.” He throws out more excuses than he needs to. We could use a back-up point, and maybe (probably) Troy Hudson ain’t the answer. I’ll buy that. But don’t sell me the Brothers Allen (Tony and Ray-Ray). Eddie House, maybe. Just don’t spin us on the point-guard-by-committee BS, Ainge.
Please.

Jeff,
I don’t know what your budget is like, but if I were in your position I’d spring for a Lexis-Nexis account. It’s way expensive but would make you the blog researcher emeritus. Tony Allen-at-point-guard efficiency stats would be the least of your concerns.
Just sayin’…

TA’s stats at pg can be found here, hope it helps
for the 06-07 season http://www.82games.com/0607/06BOS5C.HTM
for the 05-06 season http://www.82games.com/0506/05BOS4C.HTM
for the 04-05 season http://www.82games.com/04BOS4C.HTM

I for one wouldn’t want Jeff to retire… :-)

Jeff, it is great you are looking into this. I think we can all admit that TA is not a point guard and that DA has something up his sleeve. I bet he is waiting for someone to be cut/ bought out, but doesn’t want to tip his hand….

Here’s a direct link to KelticFan’s post, as I think it answers pretty much exactly what Danny was talking about:

http://www.celticsblog.com/index.php?option=com_smf&Itemid=64&topic=9853.msg164905#msg164905

I think Danny’s perspective and analysis of ball handling responsibilities makes sense and it’s not wildly wishful thinking, though maybe he’s being a little optimistic. But more importantly, Ainge doesn’t have to show his hand and they can be patient. A significant injury to Rondo would change things, and if it turns out they have been too optimistic they can respond.

He’ll certainly watch to see if someone they like becomes available during training camp or the first months of the season and do something if needed. They should be fine. I don’t think Ainge will jeopardize the team’s chances if a need for a backup point guard becomes apparent. Have some faith that they know what they’re doing. He deserves it.

As for Tony Allen, if he recover 85% or so percent physically, which will likely not be until the second half of the season, he should be able to be a piece of the backup point picture if needed. A couple of years ago Ainge was able to see if T. Allen had the tools to play point. Allen added experience will help him play the point better in limited stretches in the same way he showed good progress at the wing last year before his injury.

The point is that Ainge doesn’t have to do anything now before training camp, then as always its a case of ongoing evaluation of how the point situation is working out.

PG is not a real problem in this team, if Rondo is healthy. We have confortably lived without a backup in this position in Kenny Anderson’s times and I suspect that Rondo could be a good work as a starter PG. However, if Rondo drops, we could research on the market for anothing starter PG. We have enough players and round for keeping Andre Miller, for instance. I’m sure that they would like to play with PP, KG and RA. For Boston, this season, is WIN OR WIN ;D

I believe Danny has someone else in mind. It may take a while, it may not be this year but I think he must have a particular player in mind, a difference maker I hope.

Its just spin, guys. Why are you so obsessed with Tony Allen as a PG. Ainge has made a lot of changes in this team, and he’s putting a good face on PG. When its all said and done Ray Allen will play more PG than Tony. But really, with KG, RayA, and PP what difference does it make. There isn’t a differece making PG in the NBA who has those 3 guys, and only a small handful of anyway, and none available. In the Celtic offense, PG will turn out to be just another position, not the conductor/maesto type.

As far as Tony handling the ball, I remember Tommy saying over and over that Tony is fine as long as he doesn’t have to dribble more than twice.

Don’t know if it’ll work or not, but I have the feeling Pierce and Garnett are going to be running the offense/handling the ball a lot more than any point guard we throw out there. I’d even wager Rondo will have a slightly hard time getting the ball back from them to set up the offense. I have this image of Pierce, Allen and Garnett playing one continuing game of pass/catch/shoot.
For better or worse.

Tony Allen wants to play point guard and will have to now that we have Posey. He’ll be great against the taller point guards like Billups/Wade. His job will be to get the ball to KG to start the offense. The challenge will be if other teams start to press in the backcourt. He will need to recognize it and get the ball to Allen or Garnett before the double team solidifies.

RAllen, TAllen are on stanby to be our 3rd or 4th string PG so lets not get too worked up about the backup pg situation. As far as I know, EHouse is our firs pg off the bench and our backup and he is more than capable of filling that role.

To put it in perspective JVought is the backup pg for the NBA Champs….now, pretend SA was eliminated by PHX in the semis(in other words, minizing his exposure making him just another backup in the league), and lets say that Danny signed Vought and not EHouse this past summer as our backup. I don’t know about you but I can’t consider Vought to be an upgrade over House…. ;)

I am not worried. Every team has a weak spot and ours appears to be the backup pg, not a bad situation to be in.

Do we feel confident going for number 17 with a gifted athlete like Rondo at PG but has very limited time at PG in the NBA? Do we feel confident with back up PG’s that are not exclusively back up PG’s? I am not sure yet so I feel the Celtics might need a veteran PG and the PG only plays this position. The player will help Rondo with strategy and confidence and also will keep the offense moving with a good flow and able to break through 1/2 and full court press situations.

I don’t think TA is going to play very much for a while. Remember, he’s coming off his second major knee surgery.

Eddie House is the primary backup. And in crunch time minutes, I much prefer him to Rondo because of his ability to stretch defenses like the Bulls’ championship point guards – Craig Hodges, John Paxson, BJ Armstrong, Steve Kerr.

While it’s true that Ray Allen is no Scottie Pippen, neither did the Bulls have a ball-handling PF like Garnett. You could even throw out House, Ray Allen, Paul, Posey, and Garnett to force odd matchups. This will be fun.

I think Danny is going to see how this team meshes before going after a true back up point if that is a necessity. I also think there are some questions at the center position too. If Perk goes down again, or has to drag that plantar facilities around game in and game out, it will be center and not point that becomes the overwhelming big need.

Perhaps Danny is just trying to keep his powder dry until we get a good part of the season underway and then make roster decisions prior to the trade deadline. I can see both sides of the grab Hudson now why we can sign him for the miminum verse the wait and pull the trigger when a void is needed later in the season.

Does not make sense to me to get RA & KG and get an experienced point guard behind Rondo. Tony Allen is not the answer at PG. We spend the money to get better but just wish & hope that Tony Allen can get them the ball?

I think the idea is this: from time to time, against certain matchups, TA can serve as an adequate guy to get the ball up the court and into the hands of the vets, while still doing what he does best… looking for places to slash to the basket from.