Has Ray Allen been a dissappointment?

[TreyAllen34]

calling Ray Allen a disappointment is stupid, 40 - 9 what more can you ask for? The team has been having a tremendous season and although Ray has not been playing the way he usually does there is no way he has been a disappointment. Looking at the record it still boggles my mind the lack of respect Ray gets on these boards.

[Man_Up]

Somewhat. Despite what people might like to say Ray really hasn't played at an All-star level this year. He's had great games in spots, but he hasn't really been there consistently. His jumper has been suspect for a majority of they year and just started come around recently. So far he's been more like a streaky shooter than an All-star this year.

[floyd]

Secondly an argument can be made that Boston is better with Tony Allen on the floor than Ray. Tony defends well and slashes with the best of them.

Not a coherent one. Tony is a great slasher, but so is Pierce. Paul and Ray complement one another much better. And while Tony is a much better man defender, Ray makes many fewer mistakes on the court and handles the ball much better.

I can kind of see where you're coming from because Ray has struggled for streches. I think we over-played him early on and he hasn't been completely healthy. The other day, everything was short - that's his legs. But have you noticed he has also had streches of being an unstoppable offensive force? We have 3 guys that can put the team on their backs in the playoffs - that's better than two.

[quinielabox]

Ray Allen has always been one of the most consistent players in the NBA year in and year out. I certainly am satisfied with his performance this season

[eitanr]

The inconsistency and forcing of shots is not something I have expected from Ray. When watching games, you see that Pierce and KG are out there to do whatever it takes for there teams to win. Pierce can transform into a passer and KG can become a decoy. They'll sacrifice their stats (Pierce to a less extent) to get the W.

With Ray Allen, you defintley do not see as much of a sacrifice. You can see by the way he plays. If he is struggling with his shot one game or has a low scoring performance, he will attempt more and more shots to get back to his average. I'm a proponent of the notion that shooters need to keep on shooting. So yes guys like Miller and Korver can give you ten straight misses, but you still want them to keep on shooting. The same notion applies to Ray. However there's also another discipline that needs to be said of stat guys.

Remember Ricky Davis. If Ricky wasn't scoring a lot one night and putting up poor offensive number, you can actually see him forcing up more less quality shots just to get back to his average. I believe Ray Allen does this too often. I think if he just didn't care at all about his stats then this team would win the title. I know the record is great right now, but come playoff time the big 3 need to all remain unselfish. Ray is lagging a little bit in that regard. Also don't throw out assist numbers to justify him being a great passer. If you handle the ball enough and defenders swarm you, you should find assists. In Ray's case, to prove he is forcing too much and not playing within himself, maybe look at his turnovers...if you needed to....or just watch the games. There's really no actual stat that can back my point up. But if you watch the games you'll see where he will force shots just make that AVG climg. You'll see that on more than a few occasions.

[nyhuskyfan]

When the Sports Illustrated preview came out, an NBA Scout said he was skeptical that the Boston expirement would work. He thought someone would accept being the second option, but nobody would be willing to be the third option.

Ray has clearly accepted being the third option, and Boston is 40-9.

[vegas_runnin_rebel]

The inconsistency and forcing of shots is not something I have expected from Ray.

Ray is a volume shooter fresh off a season in which he averaged almost 21 shot attempts per game. If you weren't expecting him to force the occasional shot, you were incredibly naive.

When watching games, you see that Pierce and KG are out there to do whatever it takes for there teams to win.

When watching games, you see Ray Allen do the same thing.

Pierce can transform into a passer and KG can become a decoy. They'll sacrifice their stats (Pierce to a less extent) to get the W.

So can Ray. He has eight games where's he dished out five or more assists (with a season high of 7), eight games where's he pulled down six or more rebounds (season high of 10), and four games where's attempted 10 or less field goals.

With Ray Allen, you defintley do not see as much of a sacrifice. You can see by the way he plays. If he is struggling with his shot one game or has a low scoring performance, he will attempt more and more shots to get back to his average.

His game logs say otherwise. You're talking out of your ass.

And as Doc Rivers put it, "He's the guy on our team who's had to sacrifice the most, and I don't know why that sacrifice wasn't recognized."

[Joyeuse]

I guess I would say he's been disappointing, in the sense that he hasn't lived up to his billing. I think Pierce, Garnett, and maybe even Rondo have had a lot more to do with the success this team has had so far this year. He's still an awesome player, but he's not playing like an all star. Part of that was his shooting slump near the beginning of the year, and more recently, I don't think he's fully recovered from injury yet. The nice thing here is that we're looking at a really hot team that could improve for the playoffs if Ray Allen gets back into form.

All that said, I can't look at this team, with the record they have now, and say he's really hurting them or costing them games in any tangible way.

[GreenGrizz]

What did we really expect from Ray Allen? We are now 41-9 still winning without big guys. He is nice to have in the playoffs.

[nyhuskyfan]

Plus, you see games like the one in Indiana when he comes out on fire with 10 points in the first five minutes. In Seattle, he would have demanded the ball, shot 25+ times and had 40 or so points. Instead, he finished 9-16 for 23 points and the Celtics won.

He's taken more than 16 shots only four times since December 1 (a span of 31 games). That's not a very big number.

[The Rondo Show]

-= original quote snipped =-


His game logs say otherwise. You're talking out of your ass.

And as Doc Rivers put it, "He's the guy on our team who's had to sacrifice the most, and I don't know why that sacrifice wasn't recognized."

That's exactly the quote I was going to bring up once I read his post. I don't see how anyone could possibly say Ray hasn't sacrificed to win. He's taking 6.2 less shots per game and has often been the 3rd option this season.

He's also been, by far, our best clutch player this year and he hasn't complained about the plays always being drawn up for Pierce at the end despite Pierce struggling in those situations this year and Ray excelling. He's also playing the best D he has in years and really buying into TT's defensive system.

With comments like "his shooting has been horrid" and "he isn't sacrificing for the team", it seems like someone just doesn't like Ray and is going to bash him regardless of what he does.

[meatball sub]

His shooting has been a disappointment for the most part but he's become more consistent as of late. It could be our expectations were too high wishing he will drain just about every wide open three the defense gives him. He's been clutch as hell so that has made up for some of his poor shooting nights.

He's forced shots at times trying to get himself going but I can't recall him forcing up a terrible shot at a key time during a game. Having him on the court to spread the defense and always knowing he's a threat has probably been his main contribution to the team this year. Two or three weeks ago I would have answered this question with an emphatic "yes" but since KG has been out Ray has stepped up and played much better.

Many people were calling Ray washed up and I think the truth has been revealed over the past few weeks, Ray still needs to adjust to being the 3rd option. Of course we'd all love for him to be adjusted already but as long as he's comfortable come playoff time I won't be too upset.

As long as we win you can't complain too much though. The fact that most of us have seen Ray's play thus far as a slight disappointment, we're 40-9. The best thing we learned in the 1st half of the year was that we CAN play with 2/3 and maybe even found out who our most valuable player truly is....Paul Pierce.

[Kefa461]

That's why the posts have dropped lately.....answering stupid questions like this one 41-9 and has Ray disappointed??? Why no I think not.


Sorry..........I didn't mean it.......

[Man_Up]

Let me get this out the way.

RAY ALLEN IS NOT A VOLUME SHOOTER.

Player's like Iverson, Sebastien Telfair, Jamal Crawford are Volume shooters. Ray Allen is NOT a Volume shooter he is a shooter. Volume shooter suggests that he needs a huge amount of shots to get his points. That hasn't really been the case through his career so I don't know why it's suddenly being stated as if it were a fact.

When he played in Seattle him taking 20+ shots per game was the game plan. It's not because he needed 20+ to put up as much. They were a high tempo running team that wanted to out score you it was a lot of quick shots, a lot of shooting period.

If you disagree with me you can look at the numbers. For his career his FG% is 44%, IMO, that's average. I consider anything below 43 percent volume shooting. He's only had 2 seasons not including this one where he's shot 42 percent from the field, none below.

Ray is just having an off shooting year, and it's not because he's not getting enough shots. I think it's been pretty obvious that it was/is the ankles.

Just so you know Ray has a higher FG% for his career than Paul.

[HighAboveCourtside]

Short answer: No

Long answer: No

Even longer answer: All-Stars aren't disappointments

[Man_Up]

Ray made the All-star team off of multiple Injuries, Record, and Reputation.

[jfs1000d]

This premise shows a fundamental misunderstanding of hoops.

The shooting percentage is down because Ray Allen is not getting to his favorite shots on the floor. Ray isn't a spot up shooter, he creates space for his shot off the dribble. Ray is at his best off the bounce, which because of how the Celtics play with KG and Pierce really limits his opportunities.

He is missing shots he probably will end up making, but that he is at 17 ppg and not killing this team with volume shooting is a good sign.

He has played well enough for us to be 41-9. He is fitting in well, he just had to be the one to adjust his style of play. He has been very unselfish too.

[celticfan42487]

-= original quote snipped =-
He's also been, by far, our best clutch player this year and he hasn't complained about the plays always being drawn up for Pierce at the end despite Pierce struggling in those situations this year and Ray excelling.

That's just wrong. Ray's had the ball in his hands for one clutch play, he proceeded to move to the left corner line a miss a shot over a center. His play had no chance to pass it off to anyone and a low chance he would succeed. And that's how Ray does his clutch play, he just shoots and sees what happens.

All of Ray's game winners have come after Pierce has touched the ball.

I am cranky about this because I hate how people don't recognize Pierce for his unselfishness in the clutch. And Pierce doesn't always pass like KG gets knocked for, he's hit a game winner already this year... he just takes what the defense gives him.

[Luxurytaxlotterybust]

The previous post is a good one. Pierce is much better down the stretch now that he has more options.

I you look at stats only. Yes Ray Allen has been disappointing. But he has helped solidified a team and come up big in certain games.

That being said I do hope that Ray Ray has a better 2nd half than the first half. We will need in a 1/2 court playoff type game.

[Man_Up]

This premise shows a fundamental misunderstanding of hoops.

The shooting percentage is down because Ray Allen is not getting to his favorite shots on the floor. Ray isn't a spot up shooter, he creates space for his shot off the dribble. Ray is at his best off the bounce, which because of how the Celtics play with KG and Pierce really limits his opportunities.

He is missing shots he probably will end up making, but that he is at 17 ppg and not killing this team with volume shooting is a good sign.

He has played well enough for us to be 41-9. He is fitting in well, he just had to be the one to adjust his style of play. He has been very unselfish too.

I'm going to assume you were talking about my post. And i'm going to have to disagree with you about Ray. What's to be misunderstood? I'm of the belief that Good/Great shooters are labeled that because they make the open shots. Your basically saying he's missing shots because he's not used to being so open and would be better off create the looks himself.

Ray is the purest of pure shooters. Some of the shots that he's been missing have been inexcusable when considering how great a shooter he's been. And he has definitely gotten his fair share of shots off the dribble. Saying that he's missing shots because he needs to dribble around a bit is just silly too me when considering the type of player Ray is. Ray is like the shooting guard version of Tim Duncan, IMO, As fundamentally sound as it gets. How could an elite shooter like Ray Allen not be a good shooter off the catch, when wide open.

I believe and will continue to believe that he just hasn't had his legs under him. And he hasn't played like the All-star Ray Allen for a majority of the year. I'll admit part of his shooting woes are because he's taking more 3 point shots, but I believe it's mainly because he's been getting inconsistent lift on the jumper.