Wednesday, September 17th, 2008 at 8:00 am  |  265 responses

SLAMonline Top 50: Ray Allen, no. 35

The definitive ranking of the best players in the NBA today…

by Khalid Salaam

I’ve never had much of a chemistry when interviewing Ray Allen. Which is fine of course, but it’s just one of those things I notice. There are some guys who answer your questions with energy and some guys who don’t. Allen falls under the last category; anytime I’ve tried to ask him a question I always get back a dry, somewhat snarky reply.  Which again is fine, it’s unrealistic to assume every guy will answer questions with some sort of great joy. Maybe he’s not the talkative type, fine so what? Whether or not Allen is a good interview doesn’t affect where I place him on our list. Thirty-five seems like a very logical spot for him.

First I’ll give you some numbers, that way the words that come later can exist in the proper context. Ray Allen is an eight-time All-Star and while politics, popularity and occasionally injuries play a part in who goes the Mid-Winter Classic, it’s safe to say Ray Allen earned his appearances. With most of his career spent in Milwaukee (’96-’03) and Seattle (’03-’07), no TV rating conspiracy makes sense nor does the obsession of a national fan base since I can count on one hand (actually one finger) the number of Sonics and Bucks fans I know personally and non-personally. Allen won an Olympic Gold Medal in the 2000 Sydney Games, holds the record for most 3-pointers made in a season (269) and is second on the all-time 3-pointers made list.

I don’t care if you’re hating on his past life – yes, I know this is all about the upcoming season, but it’s relevant. He’s in great shape, and even without his since-gone youth he can still do what he always has done. Just not all the time. That’s why Boston’s depth is so important because they have older guys in important roles. Having depth allows Allen to play at a high level, so while he may be on the verge of his 13th year in the League, you won’t always be able to tell. And as the numbers from earlier remind us, when he’s able, he very capable.

Some of you will bring up his playoff performance from last year and say he’s rated too high. That’s cool, you have that right. He had the worst slump I’ve ever seen a star have. He was as cold as ice during the playoffs, especially in the second round. Based on his performance against the Cavs, you would have had to place him behind Wally Szczerbiak. He was beyond abysmal, allowing himself and the Celtics absolutely no margin for error. That they had homecourt advantage and still almost lost to a Cleveland team with an inferior roster (except for Mr. YankeeCowboyBulls of course) was a testament to how mediocre Allen had been. But his display of talent and moxie against the Lakers in the Finals put to bed talks of his demise and reinserted his name into the minds of basketball fans. Allen’s no. 35 ranking is to remind people that he’s not washed up.

You still can’t leave him open, and you still have to put at least a competent defender on him – a guy who can move his feet since Allen will still occasionally drive to the hole. He still can get open easier than 80 percent of the guards in this league, and he can still hit the long ball. One of the best to ever do it still has the ability to take over a game from outside the arc. Remember he holds the record now for most 3-point field goals made in a single Finals series (and that was only 6 games), so he’s still a factor. He’s not really much of an athlete anymore (although he has his moments), but his basketball smarts are as high as ever. Now that he’s experienced what it’s like to be a champ, I doubt he (or his teammates) are ready to give up that feeling quite yet.

Want more of the SLAMonline Top 50? Check out the archive.

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  • http://www.hibachi20.blogspot.com Hursty

    To sum things up for everyone who cant be bothered reading:
    1. Reggie Miller was more ‘cold-blooded’ than Ray Allen, however Allen is not done and will eventually be in the HoF.
    2. Mostly everyone agrees with Russ most of the time.
    3. Bruno has once again proved his ability to distill stupidity into a previously sensible conversation.
    4. Teddy has pro-actively insulted BET. Again.
    5. Moose has continued his random and seeming small talk with BETCATS afte everyone else has stopped commenting, which makes for short, but entertaining reading for others.
    6. People severely lack grammar skills on this site.
    7. Some commenters are just plain dumb@sses. AI was the only player the Sixers were going to ever pick no.1. Ray Allen was never in the discussion and Steph was a 1/100 shot.
    8. Vince Carter does not belong in a conversation with Reggie, Ray and (sometimes) H2O.
    9. I spent far too much time writing this and reading all the previous commments.
    10. Thankyou for reading.

  • http://www.hibachi20.blogspot.com Hursty

    *after

  • andrew

    Hursty – you just made me not waste ten minutes reading all the comments I missed out on whilst in meetings all day. Ta.

  • T. Crook

    Ray’s ranking here depends on who gets ranked higher. As written, Ray had always been in low market cities which means less tv coverage which means the casual or less intelligent fans haven’t a clue to what his game was like in his prime (It’s still better than a lot of “top” guys) Miller played in more “big” games therefore had more opportunities to shine.

    Ray should have been MVP of the ASG and should have gotten consideration for Finals MVP. His defense on Kobe was just as good as Pauls’ and almost as good as Posey’s but since Paul was the media’s matchup for Kobe he got the credit.

    Ray’s slump was horrendous but he hit shots that counted throughout the playoffs AND he did other things. A lot of the shots were going in and coming out.

    ps Who was Miller asked to guard? Not Jordan or any of the other top players. Ray had to guard Kobe and the other top guards in the west all while being a scorer. Do you think reggie would have had the legs to shoot jumpers after chasing after Jordan or Kobe for 25-35 minutes? no.

    Crook out…

  • http://www.lkz.ch/basket Darksaber

    Actually Reggie was at times called upon to guard MJ during their playoff matchups…he just couldn’t. But then again, who could?

  • scott

    @Hursty thank you for the very entertaining summary.

  • http://moneybills2cents.blogspot.com/ Money Bill Williams

    good stuff hurst

  • http://www.ravingblacklunatic.blogspot.com Allenp

    So I’m the only person that remembers how Iverson and Ray Allen were compared while college players playing in the same conference? That Allen was considered potentially better by many writers because he was more fundamentally sound? Maybe this blurb will open some eyes…Allen attended the University of Connecticut from 1993 to 1996, where he earned All-American status and was named USA Basketball’s Male Athlete of the Year in 1995. In 1995-96, his final college season, Allen was a first-team All-American and won the Big East Player of the Year award. Allen finished his UConn career third on the Huskies’ career scoring list with 1,922 points and set a single-season school record by connecting on 115 three-pointers in 1995-96.

  • Fresh

    Ray Allen who I have at 40 on my list to me is always missing something from his game. People with great talent you tent to criticize when the miss a beat or maybe do something other than what they were brought into do @ any level. But he is still talent and maybe deserving of a higher spot but a group of games won’t do that. Although he does alot of things really well and is an excpectional shooter sometimes you just don’t know about Ray and he gets lost in the shuffle

  • http://www.hoopchina.com xue

    thanks for him

  • http://yahoo.com Chris

    Yo! Slam. i am native of the republic,ie South Africa, a big slam fan.I would love to see old school feature in all your ed’s , man .The Chambers ,..the Russels ,Wests ,Tiny Archibalds..and lots more,am saying bring some nostalgia .

  • emoney12

    cmon brah u gotta have ray ray higher than this. i mean he starred in what may be the greatest movie of all time!! and he’s an assassin. loook at his youtube highlights. they are great!!

  • CL SMOOTH

    Put this Ray/Reggie debate to bed. Ray’s better. He’s not as clutch, but he has a ring. He’s a better rebounder and passer than Reggie ever was. He carried a very average Sonics team to 50 wins and came within one Allen Iverson from getting the Bucks to the Finals. He’s better.

  • http://nIn Ninjaschwoog

    Ray is in the hall of fame, based on three things.
    1. He won a championship as a priority player. (meaning he was a go to guy along with Pierce and Garnett on a championship club.)
    2. He will score over 20,000 points and an amazingly small amount of players have accomplished this feat, considering how many years the league has been in existence.
    3. He holds or will hold records for all of the relevant 3-point shooting stats that are out there. Also tops in Free throw shooting as well, and Ray has accomplished this all at a much younger age than many of the previous record holders.

  • Lyrical

    Ray was not even supposed to play back to back games per doctors orders last year, his stroke is sick. Paul Pierce, is not the most unselfish player in the world, and Ray actually gets many of his assists from Rondo, as Pierce is a bit of a black hole. Ray is very athletic and in amazing shape, and is constantly moving. I live in Boston, and watch every game and some of his dunks he occasionally throws down, make you leap out of your seat, as you forget that at 6’4 or 6’5 he can still rim rock it when he sees fit with great hang time and pop. But at the end of the day, he will go down as the greatest pure shooter with the sweetest stroke in history. His numbers are CLEAR hall of fame in every offensive category. He did it night in and night out on teams that really had limited weapons to worry about – and he couldn’t be stopped. On the Celts the big three all drop their averages proportionally, but Ray has had to adjust the most due to the way he usually was kicked the ball as a matter of necessity for his teams to win. The Celts are just so good, he gets a few less looks every game, and they are deeper than you think and his position is sort of deep at back up with Tony Allen needing some good minutes, and Eddie House both at 2 guard.
    I would put him around number 20, due to his WAY under-rated court sense and defense and absolute unselfishness for a super star and scoring stud to possess. He is playing great this year as well, and I look for his numbers to be even better, but his overall points might only look slightly better, due to them not getting huge minutes as they have been blowing so many people out he doesn’t play the fourth.

    He is one of my favorite professional athletes in any sport, truly classy and a good person.

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