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Consider: The greatest shooter in the history of the NBA is a free agent. His former team offers him twice the amount of money as the only other bidder – the current champs, arch rivals. His former team is retooling and is all set for another scrappy fight with the champs. He has spent five intense years with this group, won his first NBA championship. Bought into a philosophy of togetherness – Ubuntu – that united a motley team of prideful veterans and trash-talking pups. He’s the son of an army man, discipline and loyalty being his calling cards. He is going to be a back-up guard with both teams, though it is possible he’ll see more playing time with the champs. He has strong personal and familial ties to the state his former team represents in the NBA. His teams have been beaten in the last two playoffs by these champs – a team the world loves to hate. That’s got to rankle for a competitor like Allen. And oh, did I not mention that he is being offered twice the amount of money to re-sign with his former team? TWICE?
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So, who does he sign with? Easy answer, right?
Wrong.
Free agent guard Ray Allen has verbally committed to signing with current NBA champs, the Miami Heat.
“HeatNation please welcome our newest teammate Ray Allen #Wow”, tweeted LeBron James, a fair emotion considering the implausibility of what had just happened. The Celtics and the Heat don’t just play competitive basketball, they hate each other. The Celtics-Heat rivalry is perhaps the most compelling current basketball rivalry, a fact only cemented by the quality and nature of the previous two playoff series’ between the teams. These teams trash talk each other in regular season games. Not playoff basketball, but meaningless minutes in a 82-game grind. These are the games circled in red on the calendar. No subject is off limits – LeBron’s cahones, Wade’s age, Bosh’s manhood. One only has to read the reports from these games over the last two years to understand – the phrase ‘grind out’ is used more than any other. It’s all been an “instant classic”, as Paul Pierce tweeted after Game 4 of the EC Finals this year.
So why did Ray Allen do what he did? And what does it mean for the Heat moving forward?
It appears as if the Celtics, at some level, have been gearing to let go of Ray Allen. Consistently hearing his name in trade rumours, Allen felt slighted by the perceived lack of respect. Coupled with his deteriorating relationship with Celts star guard Rajon Rondo, RA did what he thought was right by him. Let’s not misunderstand what Allen just did – he left the Celts because he truly believed the Celts were not committed enough to keeping him on their roster. They didn’t try hard enough. It’s not a coincidence that the Celts sought to first lock up Jason Terry before pursuing Allen strongly. He was simply not that high on their priority list – the first name to be thrown out in trade conversations all of last year (he was traded to Memphis and informed about the decision before the trade fell through at the last moment). And Ray had simply had enough.
As for Allen’s impact as a Heat, let’s not overstate who Ray Allen is in 2012 at the age of 36. He’s a knockdown shooter, especially from beyond the three point arc, a bit suspect on perimeter defense and an average rebounder/athlete at this stage of his career. At the very least, Allen is an upgrade on Mike Miller, who cannot have too many working muscles (he hobbled his way to a marquee shooting performance in the championship clincher). The RA corner three will be the final play on at least a handful of possessions every game, and it’s likely to be an open three and it’s likely to be swished. He’s going to provide the consistent perimeter threat that forces defenses to stay honest and not double Bron and Wade incessantly. A lineup of Chalmers-Wade-Allen-LeBron-Bosh (which is the lineup Spoelstra is going to use to end games) is a true-blue ‘pick-your-poison’ lineup. Both Chalmers and Allen shot above 40% from beyond the arc last season, Wade and LeBron are among the best at the drive-and-kick in the NBA, and Chris Bosh has the surest mid-range jumpshot in the NBA. You cannot defend that. You simply cannot.
On the defensive end though, the Heat are at their best playing a disruptive style that forces turnovers. This requires considerable scrambling on rotations, something that Allen, with seventeen years of NBA mileage on the legs, may not well appreciate. Allen’s not going to help this team greatly unless he plays at least average defense as well.
Above all, this signing means that the best NBA playoff series next year is going to be round two/three of the eastern conference, where the Heat will almost certainly play the Celtics (unless the Celts draw the Nets or a Rose-led Bulls and lose to them – unlikely) in a marquee series for the ages. It’s going to be physical and it’s going to be brutal, with a huge number of egos on the line. And Ray Allen is going to be bang in the middle of it.
What’s it going to look like when he buries a dagger three in clutch time over the outstretched arms of a player in green?
Welcome to Heat Nation, Ray. Things are all red here.
