Contract time is coming up this summer, which makes this an ideal time for a TA retrospective. A well earned TP to Roy for putting this together to meet the moment.
The per-36 stats were the most insightful. During the "breakout" pre-injury games, TA scored in bunches...and had the highest TO ratio of his career. He truly kept both teams in the game, and we usually lost that year (06/7). Still, those were rather desperate times, and a potential aggressive 20 point scoring SG met the need of soothing the depression in a way that Southern Comfort proved inadequate. I was hopeful that Tony might just turn out to be an important, major-minutes piece.
Unfortunately, many allowed themselves to be misled, possibly including Tony himself, that his NBA role was destined to be that of a scorer.
At other times, due to roster need, TA filled the backup PG role. A 6'4" PG is an asset; a 6'4" SG is average, and we went a very long time without a true PG, so it made sense (I guess) to audition TA for that role.
But that isn't it, either. The less time TA has the ball in his hands, the fewer "bad tony" turnover opportunities there are. That means we'll see him going "good tony" things more often, with fewer "bad tony" interruptions (the pass to the fan in the 3rd row is my fav). So he seems to be "different" when he is really only being used differently, or, rather, how he should have been used all along, if not for vain attempts to plug roster holes at wing scorer or utility PG.
And this is what we've seen more of. The numbers (thanks again, Roy) don't show any remarkable change. What is different is that he's not trying to score, but is getting mostly garbage points, off rebounds, cuts, etc. He's not trying to have the offense run through him as though he is the focal point. He's focusing on playing great D, getting to the open spot (via some nice cuts), chasing the ball down (loose and rebound), and as a consequence, good things are happening.
He's also playing as few minutes as ever, which can really reinforce the idea that he isn't the focal point of anything, but is a role player. That role is more clearly defined now than it has been, perhaps, in his entire Celtic NBA career. Like he always has, Tony is doing what he's told. He hasn't changed, but maybe, just maybe, after what-7 years?, his coaches have; they've learned how to use Tony to help us win: as a 16 minute energetic defense-first player who scraps for rebounds and loose balls on offense, always looking to put the opponent on his heels at both ends of the floor.
I still think if Tony were put on an NBA team and told to average 20 points in 35 (or whatever) minutes, he very well might...and, like 2007, that team would lose consistently. And tickets for the 3rd row would cost a small fortune. Will some crappy team make him an offer this summer in hopes that, finally healthy, he can grow into a larger role (a la the deal Trevor Ariza got)? We'll see, but the numbers suggest he would be better off doing exactly what he's doing now.
