The Memphis Grizzlies have cooled since they started the season with the NBA’s best record at 10-1, but at 29-11, they’re third place in an increasingly ruthless Western Conference. A big part of their success this year — as in year’s past — is the play of perpetually underrated point guard Mike Conley. In a recent NBA.com feature with Ian Thomsen, Conley offered his own unique relationship with Tony Allen, and it’s as cavalier as the flamboyant Grizzlies defensive whiz.
Thomsen was with Conley when he visited the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis recently, but the day before he spoke with Conley’s more out-spoken backcourt mate, Tony Allen.
“To be a good leader, you have to be a good listener as well,” Grizzlies guard Tony Allen had been saying the previous day of Conley. “So he listens to what we’ve got to say, if we’re complaining, or if we think they should go a different way; and he always brings us back, that we’ve all got to be on the same page to move forward. He needs to continue that. But I think I want him to be a little nastier, though. I need him to be a little more nastier, put a little more of a mean streak in him.”
Sometimes “being a little nastier” means Conley has to — literally — slap Allen upside the head to get his attention back into the flow of the game:
“He says there’s another level I need to reach,” said Conley, who went into his Tony Allen rasp: “He wants me being nasty, to put on a different Mike.” He laughed. “He wants me to be in his space, grab his jersey, pound him in his chest, ‘Snap out of it!’ and all that stuff. I can try, but that’s just not me for the most part. I’ll slap him against the back of his head once in a while, because that is the only way to get his attention sometimes: You’ll be talking to him and he’s looking right past you, so you just got to hit him upside the head. Then he’s listening to you again.”
“Yeah,” conceded Allen with a shrug, “he’ll hit me upside my head.” He was grinning as he clapped his hands. “‘Snap out of it! Go onto the next play, we’ve got to make a run!’ He’ll tell me things like that, just keeping me engaged, and I think that’s big. That’s big.”
Among Grizzlies two-man lineups with at least 200 minutes of on-court time together, the Conley-Allen pairing in the backcourt holds opponents to the fewest points per possession of any two-man group on the team.
As a team, they’re not a top-five defensive team like they’ve been the last few years (they’re sporting a 102.0 defensive rating so far this season, good for 11th in the NBA so far), but not so with Conley and Allen.
With Conley and the defensive whiz Allen on the court together, the Grizzlies give up only 97.6 points per 100 possessions, which would be good for the second-best per possession defense in the league — trailing only the league-leading Warriors who have a 97.2 defensive rating.
Yes, Allen can’t knock anything down from the outside, but Conley’s 43.3 percent shooting from beyond the arc more than makes up for Allen’s dearth of shooting. Plus, with Allen hounding opposing guards, it allows Conley to sneak into passing lanes, too (the two combine for over three steals a game).
It also seems like they trust one another, enough for Conley to slap Allen on the back of the head if he’s drifting during the game. How can you not love that? We know brothers who don’t have that sort of trust with one another.
(NBA.com)
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