Who should play more, who less? / Tony Allen better be (merged)

[rondohondo]

 I don't see why he isn't playing. We have a bunch of jump shooters in there and when we take rondo or pierce out no one is going to the hoop. What is the one thing that TA does good on offense? HE GOES TO THE HOOP. I know Johnson was going off tonight, but I believe tony can slow him down a bit he is faster and quicker then ray and pierce and posey. He would be able to get up under johnson and force him into jump shot. Doc better give Tony some playing time in game 5!!!!!!!!!

[Bahku]

The starting five had better be playing in game 5, cuz they weren't in this one. And they should be playing extended minutes. There's WAY too much rotation going on, and it totally messes up the chemistry on the floor and the momentum. Nice to have a deep bench, but we pay the stars big money to get a championship, and it's NOT going to happen with the bench on the floor! Give them a blow once in a while, and when there are foul problems, but please, Doc .... let the starting five earn their money, and play their hearts out!

[rondohondo]

The starting five had better be playing in game 5, cuz they weren't in this one. And they should be playing extended minutes. There's WAY too much rotation going on, and it totally messes up the chemistry on the floor and the momentum. Nice to have a deep bench, but we pay the stars big money to get a championship, and it's NOT going to happen with the bench on the floor! Give them a blow once in a while, and when there are foul problems, but please, Doc .... let the starting five earn their money, and play their hearts out!

of course the starting 5 will be playing, but tony needs to take sam cassell and eddie house's minutes for the rest of this series at the shooting guard. They are not athletic or quick enough to stay with johnson, TA can play 10 mins of solid D and make a few drives to the hoop when pierce and rondo are not in the game.

[BASSTHUMPER]

def tony needs to play...if he can slow down kobe he can shut the hawks down...

[Bahku]

The starting five had better be playing in game 5, cuz they weren't in this one. And they should be playing extended minutes. There's WAY too much rotation going on, and it totally messes up the chemistry on the floor and the momentum. Nice to have a deep bench, but we pay the stars big money to get a championship, and it's NOT going to happen with the bench on the floor! Give them a blow once in a while, and when there are foul problems, but please, Doc .... let the starting five earn their money, and play their hearts out!

of course the starting 5 will be playing, but tony needs to take sam cassell and eddie house's minutes for the rest of this series at the shooting guard. They are not athletic or quick enough to stay with johnson, TA can play 10 mins of solid D and make a few drives to the hoop when pierce and rondo are not in the game.

That was sarcasm and irony, because they played poorly ... I know they'll be playing.

[Who]

Tony is the only guy on the team besides Paul that consistently takes the ball hard to rim when times are tough, when the Celtics need a hoop. That'd be great to have. He's a good man-to-man defender with great quickness. That'd be good to have. He's valuable to this team.

But where does he fit in? Posey has to play minutes at power forward if Tony is to play unless we want him at the point, which I don't. Giving him minutes is going to be tough. It's probably worth trying to fit him in though.

I'd like to see Eddie out there as a first priority instead of Sam.

[BudweiserCeltic]

I'd love to see Tony, as I've always liked him... but are we willing to get the good with the bad? Are we willing to take a risk with him?

[Celtic]

Might as well, Cassell ain't working. What I would like is for the Celtics to run and push the ball so much that the Hawks wont be so willing to run back themselves, then we wont need Tony so much to shut down one guy. We need to leave the Hawks completely disoriented with our great team defense, we showed flashes of it tonight, but didn't stick with it.

[nickdel1423]

i said this from the beginning, cassell doesnt help or hurt the team. house and tony were doing just fine. get allen in there to slow down johnson because appearently doc didnt want to put posey on him who was the best defender on the court. whatever now we get to win it all in game 6 in atlanta to watch the fans shut up finally.

[MaineBleedsGreen]

I know sam was hitting shots in games 1 and 2, but the whole time I'm wondering where's house and allen ... still wondering.

[jimmyt]

glad to see this topic up, as i was screaming for tony allen in the fourth quarter.

listen, im not a big tony allen guy but NOBODY could cover joe johnson in the fourth quarter... why is doc sitting on his hands for? Bring in a guy that maybe can spark the defense and contain Joe Johnson.

We have TA for his defense, so why not use him when a guy he can guard is going off on us like that??? COME ON DOC.

Sam Cassell looks worse and worse each game. Somebody please step up. Tony Allen is fresh legs in the fourth quarter, play him.

[tanner]

i don't think we had joe johnson work for most of his shots.  the guy was in his offensive rhythm all night.  insert TA in the rotation and have him hound joe johnson.  decrease ray's minutes to 35-38min.  TA doesn't have to play necessarily down the stretch.  but if johnson goes berserk down the stretch,  at least doc has the option of playing TA.

[NoraG1]

glad to see this topic up, as i was screaming for tony allen in the fourth quarter.

listen, im not a big tony allen guy but NOBODY could cover joe johnson in the fourth quarter... why is doc sitting on his hands for? Bring in a guy that maybe can spark the defense and contain Joe Johnson.

We have TA for his defense, so why not use him when a guy he can guard is going off on us like that??? COME ON DOC.

Sam Cassell looks worse and worse each game. Somebody please step up. Tony Allen is fresh legs in the fourth quarter, play him.

Exactly. I remember earlier in the season it was being said that Tony Allen was going to be the key for this team. Where is he esp. when what you have been trying is not working he is supposed to be good on defense--then use him on Johnson. He could not have been worse the Ray.

[jimmyt]

i don't think we had joe johnson work for most of his shots.  the guy was in his offensive rhythm all night.  insert TA in the rotation and have him hound joe johnson.  decrease ray's minutes to 35-38min.  TA doesn't have to play necessarily down the stretch.  but if johnson goes berserk down the stretch,  at least doc has the option of playing TA.

agree with you. Ray Allen played 46 minutes tonight. 46!!! youre going to tell me tony allen couldnt play some of those minutes? ill tell you one thing, if you have ray allen going 45+ minutes every game, youre going to have to wheel him out on the court for the eastern conference finals if this team makes it that far. Tony Allen deserves some playing time. he can disrupt flow and maybe take a foul away from pierce too, who got in foul trouble early.

[steve]

Tony Allen is not the answer.  You're forgetting that he has been awful most of the year.  It would be one thing if he's played once in 4 games but Doc made his decision.  Team defense is the key.  Joe Johnson shouldn't be able to go one on one with anyone.