Half full, half empty ...

[Douglas342 at aol.com]

Well, Ryan, you may have read enough of my posts to know that I will look  
anywhere to find that half-full glass.  I sure hope you're right about  Allen.  
You may be.  I'm just a very gloomy optimist.
 
In a message dated 2/1/2007 4:45:01 P.M. Pacific Standard Time,  
ubiquitous_am_i at yahoo.com writes:

This  season has a few lessons, and one of them is that
you can never count out  Tony Allen. 
Average-to-marginal athletes are the ones that don't
come  back to their pre-injury levels (think Manning,
or LaFrentz) after ACL and  MCL injuries.  Luckily for
us, Tony is a freak.  As long as he  can overcome the
mental aspects of the injury, I think his body  will
overcome.  And while some may question Tony's book
smarts, I  don't think anyone can question his mental
toughness and his ability to  overcome adversity.  He's
a tough guy who's gone through a lot of crap  in his
life and he'll eventually come to trust his knee
again.  It  might not happen next season (I see the
same trajectory for next year as  what happened last
year coming off his first knee injury--he'll  struggle
in the beginning, and then turn it on late in the
year...just  in time for the playoffs, hopefully), but
it will happen.  I just hope  Danny has enough
foresight to sign him to an extension next  summer,
assuming his rehab continues on schedule.  I don't
think he  comes back to the consistent performer he was
this year until two years  from now, which would mean
that he might be playing for another team if we  don't
give him the extension.  And, since he's injured right
now,  we should be able to get him relatively cheap,
which is important since Al,  Delonte, Gomes, and
eventually Green will be looking for extensions  as
well.  In the long run (I hate to echo Doc), his
injury and this  team's swoon might actually be a great
boon, IF we get an Oden/Durant, IF  Tony's able to come
back to full strength, and IF he does that  while
playing for a relatively low amount of money.  That's
three  big IFs, but those are about the only positives
we can take from the  current situation.