Ray Allen wasn't completely healthy last year?

[indeedproceed]

Ray allen has probably his a plateau in his career (much like Shaq, Bruce Bowen, Mike Finley) in which he will never be what he feels is "100%"...he's always going to be stiff, achey, and less flexible and its only going to get worse. When do you think the last time a guy like KG or Tim Duncan felt like they were "100%"? 1995? The older guys have hundreds of thousands of dollars in knowledge and machinery ensuring that they are as healthy as they're going to get.

[dmorrison22]

I think Ray Ray struggled in the playoffs until the Finals was because he just didn't have the legs. Once he found his second wind, but when it comes to shooting there is only one cure, keep shooting. He turned it on in the Finals and rained on the Lakers. The best thing tho is the fact that Brian Scalabrine got his ring! There is this hilarious article on bleacherreport.com I'm suprised no one has posted this yet.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/30969-brian-scalabrine-finally-gets-his-ring-rest-easy-nba-fans

[BudweiserCeltic]

I put a lot of blame on the poor PG situation, playmaking wise, and on Cleveland's defense. They simply got Ray out of rhythm. Sure, Ray has to own up for his portion, but those two factors really worked against him.

[cordobes]

I put a lot of blame on the poor PG situation, playmaking wise, and on Cleveland's defense. They simply got Ray out of rhythm. Sure, Ray has to own up for his portion, but those two factors really worked against him.

Agreed.

Also, Ray was the player who had to sacrifice his game most and adapt to a new role. His Usg% came down from 29.5 in his last year in Seattle to 21.5 last season, his lowest since his rookie season. He was asked to play a different game he was used to.

[Mr October]

I put a lot of blame on the poor PG situation, playmaking wise, and on Cleveland's defense. They simply got Ray out of rhythm. Sure, Ray has to own up for his portion, but those two factors really worked against him.

Yeah, Cleveland's defense was really impressive, especially on Ray. They jammed him and double him on the perimeter to the point where he completely lost his rhythm. It was impressive. I wonder if Cleveland is going to bring any of that intensity in the regular season. They could be really dangerous.

Ray will be fine this year. I can't wait to see how they play after elevating their individual and collective games over the course of last year. Go Celtics!!

[Edgar]

I put a lot of blame on the poor PG situation, playmaking wise, and on Cleveland's defense. They simply got Ray out of rhythm. Sure, Ray has to own up for his portion, but those two factors really worked against him.

Yeah, Cleveland's defense was really impressive, especially on Ray. They jammed him and double him on the perimeter to the point where he completely lost his rhythm. It was impressive. I wonder if Cleveland is going to bring any of that intensity in the regular season. They could be really dangerous.

Ray will be fine this year. I can't wait to see how they play after elevating their individual and collective games over the course of last year. Go Celtics!!

yup DW is helluva player 

[BballTim]

I put a lot of blame on the poor PG situation, playmaking wise, and on Cleveland's defense. They simply got Ray out of rhythm. Sure, Ray has to own up for his portion, but those two factors really worked against him.

  Ray was out of his rhythm on his own. He'd get the ball wide open, hesitate and reload instead of putting it right up and miss the shot. Cleveland did play good defense but he was just in a slump and he got there on his own.

[BudweiserCeltic]

I put a lot of blame on the poor PG situation, playmaking wise, and on Cleveland's defense. They simply got Ray out of rhythm. Sure, Ray has to own up for his portion, but those two factors really worked against him.

  Ray was out of his rhythm on his own. He'd get the ball wide open, hesitate and reload instead of putting it right up and miss the shot. Cleveland did play good defense but he was just in a slump and he got there on his own.

Without going into many details, 8.7 shot attempts per game during the Cleveland series says you're wrong.

[Birdbrain]

A healthy and more involved Ray Allen will be the main reason this team will actually be better than last years team.  

Posey who?

Ray Allen 08/09 >>> Ray Allen 07/08

[BballTim]

I put a lot of blame on the poor PG situation, playmaking wise, and on Cleveland's defense. They simply got Ray out of rhythm. Sure, Ray has to own up for his portion, but those two factors really worked against him.

  Ray was out of his rhythm on his own. He'd get the ball wide open, hesitate and reload instead of putting it right up and miss the shot. Cleveland did play good defense but he was just in a slump and he got there on his own.

Without going into many details, 8.7 shot attempts per game during the Cleveland series says you're wrong.

  In what way does the number of shot attempts say that I'm wrong?

[Birdbrain]

Yeah without going into details it would seem that 8.7 shots per game would actually be the best evidence that he was in slump/out of rhythm.

[BudweiserCeltic]

I put a lot of blame on the poor PG situation, playmaking wise, and on Cleveland's defense. They simply got Ray out of rhythm. Sure, Ray has to own up for his portion, but those two factors really worked against him.

  Ray was out of his rhythm on his own. He'd get the ball wide open, hesitate and reload instead of putting it right up and miss the shot. Cleveland did play good defense but he was just in a slump and he got there on his own.

Without going into many details, 8.7 shot attempts per game during the Cleveland series says you're wrong.

  In what way does the number of shot attempts say that I'm wrong?

It shows exactly what we've been saying. The playmaking was very poor in the Cleveland series, and that the Cleveland defense was trapping Ray as soon as he caught the ball. It means that Ray wasn't getting the shot attempts he's accustumed to. It means that he couldn't get in a rhythm. If you're not getting your hands on the ball and you're not being put in a position to shoot the ball in a normal frequent manner due to those factors, then yes, it means they contributed quite hugely to Ray being out of rhythm.

Then you combine those factors with what you see in the court, with Rondo having awful shot selection, not running the team as he was expected to. His defenders didn't care for him because he was mostly a non-threat to them. He did a poor job in the Cleveland series. Then you factor in Cassell (self explanatory).

[BballTim]

I put a lot of blame on the poor PG situation, playmaking wise, and on Cleveland's defense. They simply got Ray out of rhythm. Sure, Ray has to own up for his portion, but those two factors really worked against him.

  Ray was out of his rhythm on his own. He'd get the ball wide open, hesitate and reload instead of putting it right up and miss the shot. Cleveland did play good defense but he was just in a slump and he got there on his own.

Without going into many details, 8.7 shot attempts per game during the Cleveland series says you're wrong.

  In what way does the number of shot attempts say that I'm wrong?

It shows exactly what we've been saying. The playmaking was very poor in the Cleveland series, and that the Cleveland defense was trapping Ray as soon as he caught the ball. It means that Ray wasn't getting the shot attempts he's accustumed to. It means that he couldn't get in a rhythm. If you're not getting your hands on the ball and you're not being put in a position to shoot the ball in a normal frequent manner due to those factors, then yes, it means they contributed quite hugely to Ray being out of rhythm.

Then you combine those factors with what you see in the court, with Rondo having awful shot selection, not running the team as he was expected to. His defenders didn't care for him because he was mostly a non-threat to them. He did a poor job in the Cleveland series. Then you factor in Cassell (self explanatory).

  It doesn't mean anything of the sort. He was hesitant to shoot because he was in a slump. Cleveland played good defense, but his slump started in Atlanta (2-13 on threes his last 2 games) and ended late in the Detroit series (3-14 on threes in his first 4 games). He was 16-32 on threes before his slump and 30-56 after it. He was hesitating on his shot when he was wide open. Trying to blame his slump on Rondo is silly. You could just as easily blame Rondo's struggles on the impact Ray's shooting woes had on the offense. And Rondo's shot selection against Cleveland wasn't that bad.

[papa shuttlesworth]

I think Ray also realized that since Cleveland was double teaming him hard whenever he caught the ball, there was always someone else open.  Because he was in a bigtime slump, he tried to quickly give up the ball to take advantage of this defensive scheme and did not try to force shots.

[BudweiserCeltic]

I put a lot of blame on the poor PG situation, playmaking wise, and on Cleveland's defense. They simply got Ray out of rhythm. Sure, Ray has to own up for his portion, but those two factors really worked against him.

  Ray was out of his rhythm on his own. He'd get the ball wide open, hesitate and reload instead of putting it right up and miss the shot. Cleveland did play good defense but he was just in a slump and he got there on his own.

Without going into many details, 8.7 shot attempts per game during the Cleveland series says you're wrong.

  In what way does the number of shot attempts say that I'm wrong?

It shows exactly what we've been saying. The playmaking was very poor in the Cleveland series, and that the Cleveland defense was trapping Ray as soon as he caught the ball. It means that Ray wasn't getting the shot attempts he's accustumed to. It means that he couldn't get in a rhythm. If you're not getting your hands on the ball and you're not being put in a position to shoot the ball in a normal frequent manner due to those factors, then yes, it means they contributed quite hugely to Ray being out of rhythm.

Then you combine those factors with what you see in the court, with Rondo having awful shot selection, not running the team as he was expected to. His defenders didn't care for him because he was mostly a non-threat to them. He did a poor job in the Cleveland series. Then you factor in Cassell (self explanatory).

  It doesn't mean anything of the sort. He was hesitant to shoot because he was in a slump. Cleveland played good defense, but his slump started in Atlanta (2-13 on threes his last 2 games) and ended late in the Detroit series (3-14 on threes in his first 4 games). He was 16-32 on threes before his slump and 30-56 after it. He was hesitating on his shot when he was wide open. Trying to blame his slump on Rondo is silly. You could just as easily blame Rondo's struggles on the impact Ray's shooting woes had on the offense. And Rondo's shot selection against Cleveland wasn't that bad.

Seems to me that you're focusing too much on one aspect of my post instead of reading the whole message. I never said that Rondo was solely to blame nor did I absolve Ray from blame for his struggles. I just put a lot of blame on Rondo because he simply sucked at giving Ray the touches and you can't close your eyes and say that the Cleveland defense didn't have an impact on his rhythm either with the aggressive way in which they were trapping him. And I haven't even brought up how bad Rondo passes the ball. He has certainly shown a knack to find the open man here and there, but his passes are often badly timed and inaccurate (often to the knees instead of the chest or other areas of prefference). That's one of the things Cassell does well; when he does gives up the ball he passes the ball to where it's supposed to. Rondo doesn't do a good job at hitting people when they come off a screen. And yes, ALL of these are factors that contribute to one's rhythm.

So in conclusion, no, it wasn't ONLY Ray that was responsible for getting out of rhythm. I'd say that he didn't do a good job finding a solution to his problem, but all these factors contributed negatively to him and threw him out of whack.