Most of this offseason’s high-profile free agents have settled in with their new clubs, but we still have restricted free agents Eric Bledsoe and Greg Monroe without a home and big names like sharpshooter Ray Allen on the open market. Allen’s unemployment certainly isn’t for a lack of interest.
The incumbent Heat were thinking about bringing him back at one point, but their plans got shaken up a bit this summer and the guard himself has said a reunion is not happening. Former coach Doc Rivers would like to add Allen’s sharpshooting and veteran leadership, but so far that hasn’t yielded an agreement. And, of course, LeBron James and Mike Miller would love for Allen to take his talents to downtown Cleveland, but he might not be so eager to do that.
“It will require a perfect storm scenario for me,” said Allen earlier this month. “I’m in great shape, and I’ll continue to be in great shape, but I don’t want to go to a situation where I don’t understand the rhythm of how a coach coaches. He has to be a great coach, a veteran coach.”
New Cavs coach David Blatt, formerly of Maccabi Tel Aviv, has the experience of a veteran, but he’s making his first foray into the NBA this season. From the sound of it, Blatt isn’t the coach that Allen has in mind if he’s going to continue playing in 2014/15. Allen also inferred that he might not settle for the minimum salary, which is all many of the league’s top teams can afford to give.
Allen isn’t the superstar that he was years ago, but he proved himself to be a valuable bench player in recent seasons. Even after a career-worst 12.8 PER last season for Miami, there are at least two bonafide contenders (and probably many more) that would love to add him to their bench. Do you think Allen will bite at one of these opportunities or will he call it a career at the age of 39?