My series of posts on Grizzlies players as year-end-award contenders continues with Tony Allen as a candidate for Defensive Player of the Year (or, more realistically, the league’s all-defensive team).
- LARRY KUZNIEWSKI
- Tony Allen: Having a historical defensive season.
ESPN’s John Hollinger beat me to this with a terrific — albeit Insider-restricted — piece yesterday naming his own all-defensive team. Hollinger has Allen as the starter at two-guard and asserts that Allen would have a case for Defensive Player of the Year if he had been starting all season. (Hollinger also lists Rudy Gay among his honorable mentions at small forward, recognizing Gay’s generally under-appreciated defensive improvement this season.)
But I’ll elaborate a little on Hollinger’s case for Allen:
His individual defense: As good as James Posey was during his one great year for the Grizzlies, I don’t think this team has ever had as destructive an individual defender as Allen has been this season. And though he built his reputation as an off-the-bench stopper for a brilliant defensive-team in Boston, including doing strong work on Kobe Bryant in the NBA Finals, I doubt Allen has ever been as good defensively as he’s been for the Grizzlies this season.
We’ve seen Allen have possessions where he’s dismantled elite offensive players ranging from 6’0″ point guard Chris Paul (switching over and forcing a desperately needed turnover late in an eventual home loss in early March) to 6’10” forward Kevin Durant (bottling him up completely on a crucial late-game possession during a rousing road win in early February). And we’ve seen the kind of help defense where it feels like he’s guarding the entire other team.
