I think TA is going to have a fantastic season and despite the awkwardness of a couple of his drives, a healthy TA has always been proficient at drawing contact and finishing at the hoop with a nice “and one.”

TA in inevitably going to have ups and downs, but I truly believe that the 24 win/pre ACL TA is the player that Allen truly is. Having watched him star in college, it isn’t surprising to see his aggressive forays into the paint lead to positive returns.

Overall, I think if he stays healthy he’s going to have some big-time games for this team off the bench and will put himself into the race for 6th man…he’s a player that runs off of emotions and his confidence ebbs and flows with his successes and failures – the more he’s allowed to play to his strengths the more empowered he’ll feel and the better he’ll perform – doubt has always been the principle issue with TA, when he’s unsure of himself he struggles, when he’s confident he excels…TA worked his tail off on ball-handling this off-season and prepped for his role as 6th man – I am excited to see how it plays out…

without the turn overs. I think Tony will be a major reason for our success or failure to repeat this season. He will certainly have the opportunity to step up this year.

A complementary player is a complementary player is a complementary player. Tony must understand this and that the fact that he can dominate a game here and there by making heavily contested shots don’t change it. This situation reminds me a lot of Bonzi Wells in New Orleans last season.

What I liked was the agressiveness that TA showed coming in off of the bench. In the past, TA is a good player when he starts, when he doesn’t, he’s not. So, last night, even though he came off of the bench, he played more like a starter than he has in years and that was something I hadn’t seen in him before.

He’s hard to watch, but it’s nice having someone on the second unit that can attack the basket from the perimeter.

Good job, Steve.

Tony’s defense was excellent. On offense he’s obviously bween instructed to take it to the rack, and that’s what he did. It’s not always pretty but it puts alot more pressure on defenses than James Posey’s spot up shooting.

There are no style points in the NBA. This isn’t the And-1 tape mix tour.

Depending on the flow of the game, the opponent, and foul trouble, any one of Leon, House or Tony could be the first sub off the bench. The Celts brass has said all along no one player is going to replace Posey, they are going to try to get a little bit of what he brought from a few different guys. All Tony, and Leon and Eddie, have to do, is play their role, and not try to do too much. That has sometimes been hard for TA, but if our bench as a whole, all do their jobs, it will work.

There is no de facto 6th man on this team, so the next game when Eddie has 12 and TA has 2, that won’t be an indictment on the failure of “Posey’s replacement”. What the C’s will need off the bench, will change every night, the beauty of the Celts is their TEAM play, not a collection of individual talents. When Tony is rated as to how he fits into his specific role off the bench, and not as what has become viewed as a 6th starter by many teams who utilize a 6th man, I think you will find his grade to be more than acceptable.

Why did he do that kept turning into how did he do that. Don’t know if it was luck or skill or both….but hope it lasts all season, LOL. Tony, you surely made it interesting last night.

Afternoon, Steve; Have you forgotten, unless you werent around, when 2 yaers ago TA was our poor man’s Gilebrt Arenas, driving to the basket at will and a scoring machine, when PP was out and TA became our first scoring option? He had taken it to another level, scoring wise until he had that ill advised knee injury. He had the tools and he was using the scoring ones in an almost effortless fashion. I saw that and he was an almost unstoppable scoring machine. So it should not surprise anybody that he may be on his way back to what he was before. He must have lingering fears that anytime he can land on the floor the wrong way and it will be over for him. No way he can just not have that fear.
Eventually, I hope he regains all his confidence and be the player he was once. It will be a pity if he reinjures his knee because he is our most fearless driver to the basket. PP has slowed down a little going to the basket and Rondo is in the learning stages of it. We have no other regular player that can do that. thast why we dont get to the foul line as we should. so only playing time is the best medicine to get TA back to what he was before his bad injury. Im pretty confident he will get there. And once he gets there, he can fill the other Allen’s shoes, cause that other Allens is surely and steadily losing his legs. Ray may have another good year if given the speace to launch his treis, but its looking harder for him as time goes by to get that spacing.. Take care, Steve.

The problem I have with Tony is his lack of an outside shot. We have plenty of players that can drive to the hoop (Pierce, Ray, Walker, Rondo, Giddens), what we lack is an outside threat to spread the floor.

I think that we have a problem with a lineup of Rondo and Tony at guard, and I don´t think that we´ll see this pairing too often. So it´s either Rondo/Ray, Rondo/House or House/Tony and Tony/Ray, and I don´t like Tony or House at PG. This makes us predictable, and probably forces us to play the three amigos more than we`d want, and has other various side effects (Tony`s/House` lack of a good handle, for example).

Additionally, color me unimpressed with yesterday`s offensive performance. He was lucky that two of his shots went in, and I want to see him doing this on a regular basis before I call him a legit 6th man.

I wish him (us) all the best, though…

tony is no posey, won’t replace him, but does a lot of things. he brought the ball up often when he was in and got the offense started. his defense was admirable and he was up and down with his o but he put some life into the second team. would have liked to have seen the ball go more to ray, but he contributed to the win and it was a big win.

teach steve how to write a lead. you should say what you’re going to talk about for the rest of the article in the first sentence. this makes the reader want to keep reading. cut the vague language. look at how they do it in the newspaper – that’ll help.

of all the emotions last night with the raising of banner 18 I think everyone including Tony Allen should get a free pass last night in evaluating their performance. Yes PP played very well but not everyone handles an emotional night like that the same way. TA might have forced some shots but he might have been instructed to be very aggressive when Wally was guarding him. I remember both Powe and TA were very aggressive when Wally no world defense was guarding them. I for one will take the good with the bad as I want him to draw fouls on the opponents and make defenders really have to work with the second unit. Lastly no turnovers in 17 minutes has to be encouraging and keep in mind those 17 minutes mirrors about what he averaged last year. So maybe he can turn the corner and learn to be more effective in short stints rather needing extended playing time to be effective. However again it’s 1 game on opening night and I’d like to give him about a 20 game sample to see what we really have going with him.

Steve,
I am an avid reader of the blog and I have thoroughly enjoyed reading your write-ups (particularly during the playoffs). I feel guilty for not having acknowledged.
After every game, you provide articulation and closure for my thoughts unlike any other writer. I am sure many of your readers feel this way.
You may not dangle a carrot in the first sentence, but you provide a hearty, fulfilling carrot soup that only gets better as we read on. Please keep it coming!

It’s quite funny that everyone is micro-analyzing TA, who had a decent game last night, but very few are commenting on Eddie House, who was horrible just because he has become a fan favorite. House should be under a microscope just as TA is… even more so.

TA was once again last night forced to play some PG, when the plan was to have him play strictly SG and some SF, because House reverted to his old self. One that doesn’t distribute the ball well and has trouble bringing the ball up. During preseason House seemed much better bringing the ball up, but I thought he wasn’t distributing the ball well… so this game was a continuation. Better shooting would’ve made it all better though (as always).

I love both guys, but I find it quite curious that there’s all this crap about TA going around and no one (well few people) is talking about how crappy House played.

My take on Eddie is that if and when we use him as a pg, he is not going to be the shooter he can be when he only has to look and find a spot from where he can shoot it. As a pg his mind has to be first, to distribute the ball and then look for his shot as his second option. He wont score much when he has this role. I cannot be the only one that thinks this way so Doc, will use him either as a scorer or as a pg depending on match-ups and the guys he plays with. When he need his scoring, I suppose he will play with another PG and just look to get hois shot from where he is comfortable. Comfortable? well, havent seen a spot on the floor in which he wasnt comfortable shooting the ball. lolol . I just dont think he can be at his best shooting the ball when he is the PG. Too much to ask from him.

With respect to TA, I hope he is never told to guard a 3 point smart player at end of game cause he will foul him. I dont think he is smart enough to avoid being conned into fouling his man. That said, He is still traying to get back to that form he showed 2 yaers ago. Maybe he will, maybe he wont. I agree some shots that went in last night went in by the grace of God. Im not blind, I know he made some lucky shots. What I like about him is that apparently he is no longer scared of his bionic leg and is making huge strides in returning to attack the basket with abandon. That is his forte. I dont agree that we have such a big number of players that easily drive to the basket. I thee Ray Allen has lost a step or 2 in that phase of his game. Besides, Im sure he is taking a little more care of himself by avoiding hard contact. At his age, injuries just take a little more time to recover from. He better be doing this.

By next season Tony will have a higher scoring average than Ray Allen.

Don’t make any assumptions about TA from opening night. Forget about the past. TA’s main problem now is that he goes too fast. Doc has been working with him on slowing things down so as to let his mind catch up with his body. He did this well in pre-season. On opening nite I’m sure the emotions got to him early on as it did to many of the C’s. Doc reminded him to slow down and TA’s performance improved. As TA lets this become habit he will be better and consistent and a big part of this team. We’ll know when Tony’s reached this point when Doc stops talking to him.

The problem I have with Tony is his lack of an outside shot. We have plenty of players that can drive to the hoop (Pierce, Ray, Walker, Rondo, Giddens), what we lack is an outside threat to spread the floor.

Actually, if you say that Ray, Walker, or Giddens can drive, then you can easily say that Tony Allen can shoot. His shot compares exactly to Ray’s driving: unspectacular but serviceable.

Don’t expect TA to shoot in the mid-.400s from the three, but I don’t think people give him enough credit for his mid-range shot.