Have you noticed that in the space of 6 months, Ray Allen has alternated (in media perception) between being two steps slower than Redd Foxx and being the greatest tw0-guard not named Kobe or DWade? At the trade deadline, he was deemed worth no more than a pocketful of nickels. After the Cleveland series, he was supposedly better than the whole Cleveland team (besides LBJ). The Finals has been a microcosm of the season for him. The point of this diatribe is that the media and general population are addicted to immediate results and analysis, which allows for myopic judgements.
Clearly, Ray Allen is somewhere between the two extremes. Where? For my money, it’s almost impossible to judge. I believe the Celtics are the perfect example of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts. I think Rondo is the only Celtic who could realistically (now) be considered top-5 at his position (and that’s a stretch, to be honest). I think you could make a case that none of the big 3 are top 10 at their respective positions. However, I heard it repeated over and over again that on the Cavs, only LeBron was better than the quartet of Rondo, Garnett, Pierce and Allen. Maybe that’s true, but I believe that the reason it seems so cut and dried is because the Celtics are a TEAM, and that fact magnifies the strengths of each while covering some of their weaknesses.
Before they became the 2008 champs, each of the big 3 was toiling on mediocre teams. Each had played on teams with other great players, but had been ultimately unsuccessful. Is it possible that each got better? Doubtful. Honestly, only Garnett was ever a transcendent talent, but he was overshadowed by his tendency to shrink from the moment. Pierce and Allen were both one-dimensional. When they came together, their talents meshed, and I believe that Garnett demanded more defense and intensity from the other two, while they, in turn took the pressure off of Garnett to make plays in crunch time.
In a perfect world, we could make accurate judgements about the relative merits of individual players, but we’ll probably have to stick with overly-analytical number-crunchers and what-have-you-done-for-me-lately snap-judgements. Oh well. At least I’ll have something to bitch about.
I wrote Mitch off after his first post, but this was great analysis. He is clearly the best Nuggets blogger on this site right now; maybe the best of all time!
Clarifying my earlier comment not at all, what’s the Game 4 storyline? Ray Allen is a hero again? Celtics once again have the Lakers down with the series tied? Have to say, the most entertaining part of this series has been watching the media rush to judgment after each game – heck, after each quarter!
“For my money, it’s almost impossible to judge.” – If all you’ve got is a pocketful of nickels, I can see why it’s impossible.