But is Tony Allen any better a basketball player than he was when he was drafted? Is there anything he's really gotten BETTER at in what, five years? It's not like he was drafted out of high school; he was a four-year college player.
What's the difference, though? He's a decent backup. Whether he's better or worse than he was 5 years ago is neither here nor there. At this point, how good of a player he'll be in 5 years isn't really important. It's what he does for us this year and next.
Because he's not good enough to be someone you can rely on. He's too inconsistent to be a major rotation player on a GOOD team. Some nights, he looks like he could be sixth man of the year; other nights, he looks like he belongs in the D-League. That's unacceptable, and too many people think he's suddenly going to "get it" - it ain't happening.
If this is all you're getting from Tony - if there really IS no more potential to be unlocked - it's just not good enough.
Last year he played about 18 minutes a game for us, and this year he's playing 19. Isn't that a major rotation player, or aren't we a GOOD team?
They keep feeding him minutes, either because they're hoping something will finally click or just because we're pretty desperately lacking in legit backup wings.
Outside of (maybe) Mikki Moore, he's the worst player on the C's over the past two seasons to get regular minutes. You want to say he's OK as the 9th or 10th man on a good team? Fine, I can live with that - but if you gave me a couple minutes, I'm pretty sure I could compile a list of at least 25 backup wings throughout the league that I would rather give PT to than Tony Allen.
There just seems to be an expectation that for some reason, Good Tony is finally going to exorcize Bad Tony - but it's just not going to happen. It bothers me that they could have picked up someone like Matt Barnes (one of the 25) at the vet minimum, but instead decided to roll with TA.
