Grayson Allen, once a villain, is now playing his best basketball for the Suns (2024)

PHOENIX — After a recent home win, Grayson Allen was the last one in the Phoenix Suns locker room. Devin Booker had just finished talking to reporters at his locker. Bradley Beal and others had left long ago.

Allen’s career has featured breakouts and signature performances foreshadowing success. In high school, sharp shooting at a summer showcase in South Carolina led to dozens of scholarship offers. As a college freshman at Duke, his effort off the bench in the national title game against Wisconsin — 16 points, including eight in a row in the second half — served as a springboard.

In the NBA, Allen, 28, reached a similar point two years ago, during his first season with the Milwaukee Bucks, showing he could start and contribute for an Eastern Conference contender. But, sitting at his locker, wearing gray sweats, Allen didn’t shortchange his first season with the Suns.

He’s playing his best basketball.

“Yeah, for sure,” he told The Athletic. “I feel like each year I’ve gotten a little bit better. My numbers, I know they’ve gotten better this year, and I feel like I’ve kind of taken another jump, being asked to do a little more here, too.”

On a star-studded team that includes Booker, Beal and Kevin Durant, Allen has been perhaps the team’s biggest surprise. Through 47 games, he has averaged career-bests in nearly every major category, including scoring at 13.2 points per game. In addition, his 49.8 percent accuracy from 3-point range leads the league. Twice this season, he has made nine 3s in a game, matching a franchise record, and two other times he has buried eight.

Asked recently if Allen had exceeded his expectations, Suns coach Frank Vogel smiled. The sixth-year guard is a better shooter than he had expected. He’s better at putting the ball on the floor and making plays. And he’s probably better defensively in difficult matchups. Add these contributions together, Vogel said, and Allen has been “invaluable.”

Said Booker: “I think he’s exceeded everybody’s expectations.”

Allen can’t say for sure he expected this, but he had a good idea. During two seasons in Milwaukee, he experienced what it was like to play with an NBA superstar. When Giannis Antetokounmpo attacked the basket, defenses collapsed, four players in the paint. This created open looks on the perimeter. During the 2021-22 season, Allen shot 40.9 percent from 3. Last year, 39.9.

Here, it’s a similar deal. Booker, Durant and Beal require extra attention. In a recent win over Sacramento, Allen dished to Durant, posted up on the left. Allen shifted right. Durant waited for the double-team and dished it back to Allen for an open 3. Later, Booker passed out of a double team to Jusuf Nurkić. The Phoenix center took one dribble and fired to Allen in the right corner. Great look, easy 3. Allen this season is shooting 58.8 percent from the corners.

“I was extremely excited to get here to Phoenix,” he said. “I just felt like it was a perfect fit for me, and it has turned out to be a perfect fit for me. It’s a lot of fun playing basketball with this group.”

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— Phoenix Suns (@Suns) January 17, 2024

It’s difficult to write about Allen without touching on his past. The repeated tripping incidents during his college days at Duke turned him into a villain, a target of media and fans. He was labeled as the dirtiest college player in America. Sports columnists used phrases like “juvenile petulance” to describe him. Some said he needed professional help.

In the Phoenix locker room, Allen said all that’s behind him. He has taken responsibility for the tripping, calling it an act of immaturity. Even so, he understands why it continues to follow him. Why at each stop of his NBA journey — Utah, Memphis, Milwaukee and Phoenix — he’s been asked similar questions. It’s part of his story.

“I haven’t been an NBA superstar, so the most media attention I got was ESPN putting stuff on replay every week, so that’s what’s imprinted in people’s brains, that’s what they remember,” Allen said.

Asked if he ever reached a point when basketball no longer was fun, Allen paused for a few seconds. He never stopped loving the game, he said, but all the negativity and attention took him out of his comfort zone. He talked to former Duke standout and NBA guard JJ Redick about this. Like Allen, Redick was not well-liked during his college days, but unlike Allen, Redick seemed to embrace the villain’s role. Allen never could.

“Even though some people might say it looked like that from the outside, I don’t think inside I ever truly embraced it,” he said. “I didn’t love being hated. I never wanted to feed into it, so from that aspect, the game became tough because that was in the back of my mind. Going into a game, it was like, ‘Don’t do anything to make you be disliked.’ And you can’t play that way.”

This followed him into the NBA, outsiders ready to pounce on every questionable move. Starting his career at Utah and Memphis, organizations mostly out of the NBA spotlight, certainly helped, but Allen also put himself in difficult situations. In a summer-league game in his second season, Allen was ejected after picking up back-to-back flagrant fouls on Boston’s Grant Williams.

“That is completely different from being an immature little kid and tripping someone. That’s more like a battle,” Allen said. On the telecast, ESPN analyst Dan Dakich saw it differently and ripped Allen for a good 60 seconds, calling his act “exhausting.”

In 2022, Allen delivered a hard foul on Alex Caruso that caused the Bulls guard to fall and fracture his right wrist, an injury that sidelined him for nearly two months. (Allen has said repeatedly this was an accident.) The next season, Allen got pushed and fell into Chicago star DeMar DeRozan, left arm extended, an act DeRozan did not appreciate. After both incidents, the Bulls mentioned Allen’s history. Chicago fans boo him to this day.

None of this concerned the Suns leading up to the September trade that brought him to Phoenix. Vogel didn’t know Allen well before this season but he had bumped into him in recent years — once during breakfast when Vogel was visiting then-Utah coach Quin Snyder in 2018, and again when Vogel visited then-Milwaukee coach Mike Budenholzer in 2022.

In the past, Vogel has reached out to coaches to ask about players with questionable reputations. With Allen, he saw no need. He always just looked at Allen simply as a competitor. He was excited to get him. So were his teammates.

“I think that’s kind of died down,” Beal told The Athletic, referring to Allen’s reputation. “I think there’s maybe a little false narrative, too. Granted, I’m on his side now, so I don’t really give a damn.”

If there’s an expert on Allen’s shooting, it’s Tommy Hulihan. For years, Hulihan, a teacher and basketball coach in Jacksonville Beach, Fla., worked with Allen on his jump shot. Back then, Allen, a high-level high school athlete, wanted to dunk everything. (Allen won frequent dunk competitions.) He shot jumpers with his elbow out.

Hulihan worked with Allen for about six years, and he quickly learned one thing. If he taught Allen something during one session, he didn’t need to repeat it the next. With most players, the work ended with the lesson. For Allen, that’s when the work started. How to spread your fingers on the ball. How wide to keep your feet. He understood the importance of details. It made him an elite shooter, first in college, then the NBA.

“It just looks so smooth,” Hulihan said during a telephone interview. “He doesn’t have that hitch, that click. It’s just so natural. No matter what distance it’s at. The timing of his release — he releases it with the leg push. It’s just effortless.”

Allen sprained his right ankle in Monday night’s win in Miami. He played only 13 minutes, missing both of his field-goal attempts. It marked the first time since Nov. 21 that he did not make a 3, a string of 27 games. Vogel told reporters after the game that X-rays were negative and Allen would be day-to-day.

With the Feb. 8 trade deadline approaching, this is an important stretch for the 27-20 Suns. They need defensive help. With limited assets, Allen, who’s in the final season of a two-year, $18.7 million deal, is viewed as Phoenix’s top trade candidate, but he’s played so well that dealing him might be difficult. Asked about the possibility after a recent practice, Allen said his name has popped up nearly every year around this time. He’s used to it. He also said he loves it here. And in some ways, he predicted this.

At the team’s media day in October, Allen said he’s noticed something. At every NBA stop he’s made, he’s won over the home fans. Whatever feelings they had for him, he slowly changed their minds as the season unfolded.

“I feel like that quote has aged pretty well,” Allen said in the Phoenix locker room. “I feel extremely loved and extremely appreciated here by the fans. I have no complaints.”

(Top photo of Grayson Allen during an early-January game against the Miami Heat: Christian Petersen / Getty Images)

Doug Haller is a senior writer based in Arizona. He previously worked 13 years at The Arizona Republic, where he covered three Final Fours and four football national championship games. He is a five-time winner of the Arizona Sportswriter of the Year award. Follow Doug on Twitter @DougHaller