While guys like Jeff Garcia and Mike De Leon might not have enjoyed watching the Memphis Grizzlies during these past playoffs too much, a lot of other people did. The Grizzlies made an old-school style of basketball centered around feeding Zach Randolph and Marc Gasol in the post exciting last year by blending that with relentlessly aggressive defense on the other end. They took their brand of basketball past the San Antonio Spurs in Round One, winning their first playoff series as an organization in the process, and almost made that two before bowing out gracefully in a Game Seven to the Thunder.
A big reason why that culture of defensive toughness exists in Memphis can be specifically attributed to the addition of Tony Allen last season too. The ex-Celtic made a huge impact on that end of the floor, and had his best season offensively last year as well. With Zach Randolph, Marc Gasol, Rudy Gay, OJ Mayo, and Mike Conley all under contract next season alongside Allen for another go at it again – whenever that season does start – the Grizzlies do appear like a team who’s just getting started at this point.
While out at Impact Basketball in Las Vegas this week, I had a chance to talk with Tony Allen about that playoff run last season, as well as his thoughts moving forward in Memphis. Our exchange is below.
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Crossover Chronicles: Can you talk about the playoff run you guys had last season, and what it means for the Grizzlies as an organization moving forward?
Tony Allen: We’ll always be able to look back and know we took the word the word can’t out of our vocabulary, as well as the word suck.
At one point, you know, fans weren’t coming to the game because they didn’t like the effort they were seeing. Once we put the effort, and the playing hard, and playing together out there on the floor, our fans embraced that, and I think that’s what gave us the edge.
Once we had those fans coming to support us, fifteen guys playing hard and playing the right way, it was able to help us overcome the adversity of losing Rudy, and it brought us together to make us to even work harder.
We did it [last year] for Rudy, we did it for the fans, and it was just a great year. Getting to the playoffs and actually winning a series, it was something they never did before.
CC: How good of a tandem is Randolph and Gasol down low?
TA: They’re two of the best tandems in the league, and I feel like they can compete with just about any five or four in this league. When they’re on, I feel like we’re on, and I think we can go as far as those two guys carry us.
CC: What’s possible for the Grizzlies next season?
TA: Sky’s the limit for us. Like I told everybody else, we set a foundation last year.
Right now with the negotiations not being on point, the more we wait we do kinda lose our momentum, but I just hope we can get this thing done with the collective bargaining agreement and see what happens from there.
