The Grizzlies didn't immediately fold; instead, they went 16-8 before tanking their last two games. And in the playoffs? With everyone now watching, the Grizzlies have taken care of the Spurs and are now up 2 games to 1 on the Thunder.
So why hasn't perception matched reality? Because too often the measurement of a player's worth is overly dependent on how many points they score per game. Rudy Gay was averaging nearly 20 points per game this year when he was injured, which is consistent with his scoring averages over the last few seasons. But when he was injured, he was replaced by someone few wanted when he was a free agent after last year, and yet has been able to bring more to the Grizzlies than Gay would have had he been healthy.
Tony Allen took Gay's starting spot and his minutes. Allen has averaged double figures in scoring once in his career. But he helps in so many other areas, and particularly on the defensive end. In the Playoffs, people have begun to realize how good he is on defense, and he was just as much of a lockdown defender during the regular season (see my brother's All Defense Team). Allen has fast become the best perimeter defender in the NBA. And he'll cover offense players of all sizes, from point guards to LeBron to Kevin Durant.
An underappreciated part of Allen's game is also the (gasp) efficiency of his offense. His points per game are not high, but he recognizes that his jumper is an ugly thing to behold and so instead relies on forays into the paint. Allen is very good at getting to the rim and shot 51% from the field this season, which isn't far off from his career average.
Tony Allen will never get a contract worth more than say $30 to $35 million. Quite simply, he doesn't score enough. Unless you're over 7 feet tall (NBA GMs love to give bloated contracts to big men), you're not going to get a large deal without a high scoring average. Scoring efficiency is often ignored, defensive performance can be swept aside...but you better be putting up 20+ per game. It's time we move past such a simplistic mode of evaluation.
I don't want to suggest that the Grizzlies are better without Gay. Their biggest problem right now is lack of scoring from the perimeter, which allows opposing defense's to pack the paint. But Allen wasn't getting his minutes until Gay went down, and TA simply brings more to the table. However, all the calls for Gay to be traded are overblown. The question going forward doesn't need to be choosing one between Gay and Allen. Instead, the solution is plain: start Allen at the 2, Gay at the 3, and move Sam Young to the bench. I'm looking forward to seeing the results.
(By the way, the second most overrated stat in the NBA when it comes to measuring top players is team performance. Too often we ignore the whole TEAM and pretend that its best player is solely accountable for win-loss records and playoff performance. Kobe didn't suddenly get a lot better when Pau Gasol came aboard; the team just got better, leading to two rings. And it's largely not because of their own failings that Dirk or LeBron do not currently have any bling, it's because they haven't had supporting casts that are quite up to snuff.)
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