Did Tony Allen Make the Right Decision in Leaving Celtics for Grizzlies?

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Nov 13, 2010

Did Tony Allen Make the Right Decision in Leaving Celtics for Grizzlies? A few years ago, veterans were lining up to play for the Celtics. It's not often you can join a team that has such a good chance of winning a championship, after all.

This past offseason, though, it was a different story for Tony Allen.

The 28-year-old swingman decided last summer that he wanted to leave Boston as a free agent, signing a three-year, $9.45 million deal with the Memphis Grizzlies — the same Memphis Grizzlies who have finished with a losing record in each of the past four seasons.

This year, it's more of the same for the Griz, who are 4-5 and in fourth place in the Southwest Division.

The Celtics, meanwhile, are 7-2 and are unquestionably one of the top two or three teams in the NBA.

It makes you wonder why Allen left in the first place.

He said himself that he felt "overshadowed" in Boston, which is a fairly ludicrous feeling to have when you're Tony Allen and you're on a team with three Hall of Famers and a budding superstar point guard. Some players would relish the opportunity to play with such great players, but Allen felt overshadowed.

He left for Memphis, making not much more money than he would have made in Boston, and where he won't get the chance to be guarding Kobe Bryant in the playoffs. And — how's this for feeling overshadowed? — T.A. is averaging fewer minutes with the sub-.500 Grizzlies than he did in any of his six seasons in Boston.

Along with the sparse 12.7 minutes per game, Allen is also posting career lows in points per game (5.1), rebounds per game (1.6), free throws per game (1.1) and steals per game (0.70).

On Saturday night, he'll see his old pals on the other side of the court. Think he'll miss them?

Did Tony Allen make the right decision? Share your thoughts below.

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Did Tony Allen make the right decision?Market Research

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