Top 100 NBA Players: #42

Ray Allen

(Simmons: #63, BBR: #56)

Right not you're probably thinking, "Are you seriously putting Ray Allen ahead of Isiah Thomas?" Yes, I am. It may not seem like a logical choice at first glance, but Allen spent a number of years as a superstar before moving into his current role as a shooter in Boston.

First let's look at the top season for each player. Isiah Thomas reached his peak in his 4th season (1985), while Allen took 5 years to reach the top. Thomas was a point guard and Allen a shooting guard, so Thomas obviously had the edge in assists, but look at all the other stats:

Thomas - 21.2 pts, 4.5 reb, 13.9 ast, 2.3 stl, .458 FG%, .257 3P%, .809 FT%
Allen - 22.0 pts, 5.2 reb, 4.6 ast, 1.5 stl, .480 FG%, .433 3P%, .888 FT%

Thomas had a big edge in assists and a slight edge in steals, but Allen had a huge edge in all of the shooting percentages and a slight lead in scoring and rebounding. I still think that Thomas' season was a little better, but it's hard to say that Allen doesn't belong in the same league as Thomas when you compare their peaks.

Ray Allen scored at least 20 points per game for 8 straight seasons in the prime of his career, peaking out at 26.4 in 2007, his final season with Seattle. Thomas scored over 20 for just 5 straight seasons, never reaching that mark after the age of 25. Allen is also known as one of the best free throw shooters of all time, and it's interesting to note that his worst season from the line (.823 when he was a rookie) was still better than Thomas' best (.818 in 1989).

Allen also holds a record that looked untouchable for a while, the all-time lead in three-pointers made. When Reggie Miller retired in 2005, he had 2560 career 3-pointers, while Allen had totaled only 1486 to that point, leaving him more than 1000 behind. What did Allen do the next season? He set a new NBA record for three-pointers made in a season and led the league for the 3rd time in his career, cutting into Miller's huge lead and making it seem like it would only be a matter of time until he broke the record, which he did in February of this year.

In 2001, Ray Allen had established himself as the star of the Milwaukee Bucks, despite having veteran stars Sam Cassell and Glenn Robinson on the roster, and he led the Bucks to the Eastern Conference Finals, where they fell to Allen Iverson and the 76ers, but there's no way they would have made it that far without Allen, who improved in almost every category in the playoffs, averaging 25.1 points, 4.1 rebounds, 6.0 assists, and shot nearly 48% from long range and 92% from the free throw line.

Allen finally saw the NBA Finals in 2008, when he helped the Celtics win their first championship in two decades. He was not the star of the team, but he was the third-best player while playing better than most teams' #2 guys. He also made a return trip to the Finals two years later, although his role had diminished a little bit more.

Isiah Thomas had more playoff success than Ray Allen, and a bigger role in that success, but his career ended much earlier than Allen's. Thomas was only relevant for 8 seasons, while Allen has kept himself playing at a star level for 13 full seasons, playing just as well at age 35 as he did at age 26. Taking the career lead in three-pointers and winning a title just cemented his legacy and moved him ahead of Thomas.