The win-win situation of the Ray Allen signing with Miami
Looking at the photo above probably extracts an emotion from
you one way or another but to me, the photo above doesn’t mean much. The acquisition of Ray Allen for the
Miami Heat will be perfect for both parties. Ray Allen now gets his wish of standing in a corner taking
four three pointers a game while not doing much else. I get that making your opponent stronger is not the way to
go, however, I think the subtraction of Ray Allen improves the Celtics. Let me rephrase so you understand my
point, the 2012-2013 Celtics will have a better roster going into the season
than the 2011-2013 Celtics did.
Not to get the intent of this article wrong, Ray Allen was
an important part for that title team.
Who could forget his 50 point game against the Bulls in 2009 playoffs
without Kevin Garnett. Ray Allen
was without a doubt a warrior and bleed green during his stay. Celtic fans should be thankful for his
contributions but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Ray Allen was the 3rd or 4th best
player on this team during those 5 years.
There are talks about retiring Ray Allen’s number. This is Boston, we are getting short on
numbers available to even retire.
Due to the shortage, the Celtics franchise has incorporate more strict
rules for retiring jerseys. Ask
yourself where does Ray Allen stand in Celtic history? To me, he is between
Bill Walton and Dennis Johnson as Celtic greats. Not as good as Dennis Johnson and a little better than Bill
Walton’s tenture. Dennis is
retired because he won two titles here while Walton only won one title as a 6th
man.
There were many reasons and factors that weighed into Ray’s
decision to leave. It is important
for fans and media to be responsible in talking about these topics because any
one of them could be over blown. Whether
it was his relationship with Rajon Rondo, Danny Ainge, Doc Rivers, or his role,
it wasn’t one of these over the other that drove his decision to sign in Miami.
The Rajon Rondo relationship topic seems to be the most
discussed one. It’s bad
enough that Rajon has a ‘reputation’ about being a bad teammate, locker room
cancer, etc. I’ve discussed this
‘attitude’ as a positive because it’s a winner’s attitude. Rondo is not getting into heated
arguments about fashion, after party plans, or where he sits on the bench. Rajon gets into arguments about how to
win basketball games, would you rather this type of personality (ie: Kevin
Garnett, whom he learned from) or the type that doesn’t care about winning (ie:
Carlos Boozer)? This is a no
brainer.
I am not denying friction between Rajon and Ray because
Rondo rubs people the wrong way, it’s just differences in personalities. If anything, I think the Danny Ainge
trade discussions might have more weight because Ray lost trust in the
organization, especially after the Memphis Grizzlies trade that fell
through. We all know the story,
which didn’t help in Boston’s favor to retain Ray Allen. There were rumors of a no trade clause
entered into the offer for Ray Allen, if true and he still took the offer in
Miami, than we can weigh the Rondo issue more, but I don’t think Danny would
have put that in unless it was a one year deal. Either way, Danny offered 2yrs / $12 million and Ray took
3yrs/ $9 million, which tells me it was about being wanted by an organization.
Everybody loves Doc Rivers. You will never heard a bad word muttered about the man who
has performed at every level of basketball from high school to the pros, from
coaching to broadcasting, he has built a lot of relationships. I felt during the past season, Ray
Allen went along with the team’s plans although he didn’t agree. By not agreeing to the teams plans, he
felt the Celtics were better with him starting. The Celtics, Rajon Rondo and myself all disagree on Ray’s
assessment but hand it to Ray, he went along with it. He wasn’t happy doing it, and I think he felt as though Doc
didn’t stick up enough for him to start.
The Celtics were better with Avery Bradley, we know the stats (with Ray,
23-23; without Ray, 16-4) but Ray wants to play where he is wanted. There will be reports coming in the
next week about the lack of recruiting of Ray from Doc and the super stars,
which will absolutely play into his decision as Lebron basically trolled
twitter for days expressing his love.
Even Lebron’s kids love Ray Allen.
This all comes down to what Ray Allen wants out of
this. Clearly, he wanted attention
first and foremost, or else he wouldn’t have “left Miami without signing”. Ray Allen wanted to be wined and dined
through this, which is silly to expect because why would the Celtics wine and
dine him? Danny and Doc said
everything publically that they could but respected Ray Allen enough to not
harass him during this decision.
What other factors did Ray Allen want outside of being loved? He wants to rack up more threes and
points to help his Hall of Fame bid when his career is over. He always wants to win more rings and
has a better chance to do so in Miami.
Ray Allen is going to have an easier role in Miami, allowing him to
stand in a corner and bomb away.
The Celtics will finally get to move into a smaller line up that likes
to run with Rondo and Bradley with the help of Jason Terry off the bench. Ray Allen leaving the Celtics was
probably for the best because his style of play didn’t fit into the direction
the Celtics have been transitioning towards.
