The Tony Allen Effect

     I've been a big proponent of Tony Allen playing more minutes for the Grizzlies since the beginning of the season.  I'm confident my listeners and Grizzlies GM Chris Wallace grew tired of me exclaiming "This dude can guard Kobe in the Finals but can't play for the Grizzlies?!!"  Well, Lionel Hollins finally warmed up to Tony and started playing him, and he has reaped the rewards of his decision.   But how much?

    Here are some of the numbers that I gave out on the show on Monday -
I wanted to find some measure of  the effect Tony Allen has on the offensive and defensive ends of the court (in regards to team performance).  Some explaining - Offensive and Defensive efficiency is simply how many pts the team scores, or gives up, per 100 possessions.  The Grizzlies are currently 19th in Off. Eff. and 10th in Def. Eff. in the NBA.

I went to find what the Grizzlies do when Allen plays 25+ minutes (a lot), and what the team does when Allen plays 0-10 minutes (a little). 

     When Tony Allen plays (0-10) minutes...
The Grizzlies are 8-11 in 19 games
They have an Off. Eff. of 102.5 (23rd in the league)
They have a Def. Eff. of 104.5 (16th in the league)

     When Tony Allen plays (25+) minutes
The Grizzlies are 8-2 in 10 games
They have an Off. Eff, of 106.1 (10th in the league)
They have a Def. Eff. of 100.3 (6th in the league)

The sample sizes are obviously small, but I was surprised to find that not only are the Grizzlies better defensively (which I expected), but they are better offensively, when Allen plays big minutes.  There is no doubt that Allen will be playing big minutes while Rudy is out - will he still have a huge effect on both ends?  I guess we will see.