Grayson Allen looks to move beyond reputation, complement Suns' All-Stars

There's a difference between playing dirty and playing with grit and toughness to win.

Grayson Allen has built an unpopular reputation of doing the former, known more for his injury-inducing cheapshots than his deep jumpshots.

On Sept. 27, Allen came to the Phoenix Suns from the Milwaukee Bucks as part of the three-team trade that dealt Phoenix's former No. 1 overall draft pick Deandre Ayton to Portland, All-Star Damian Lillard from Portland to Milwaukee, and Yusuf Nurkic, Nassir Little, and Keon Johnson from Portland to Phoenix.

Allen will be backing up behind Phoenix All-Stars Bradley Beal and Devin Booker at the two-spot this season, and playing alongside Kevin Durant.

Entering his sixth season, Allen has averaged 9.7 points, 2.8 rebounds, 1.7 assists, and .435/.395/.861 shooting splits for his six-year pro career. The past two seasons, he started in 131 of his 138 regular season appearances for Milwaukee, last postseason's No. 1 overall seed led by All-Stars Giannis Antetokounmpo, Khris Middleton and the team's former guard Jrue Holiday.

But at the Suns' Media Day on Monday, Allen couldn't avoid questions about the negative baggage from his past.

He's aware of his unsavory image but hopes for a positive shift in Phoenix, his fourth NBA team.

“I can’t really say it’s not fair because I have owned up to the stuff. I think most of it comes from Duke," Allen said. "I still say I’ve done this interview and this question 100 times, and I always say I did a ton of self-reflection back when I was at Duke and 99% of it was just immaturity, and me being a kid in a man’s sport, in a man’s position, and just wasn’t ready to handle it. I think in the NBA, I’ve conducted myself well. I know there was an incident last year."

Among the examples from Allen's college days is when he was handed a technical foul after he blatantly tripped Steven Santa Ana during Duke's win over Elon in December 2016. Allen's Hall of Fame coach Mike Krzyzewski suspended him for that incident. That punishment came 10 months after Allen had also tripped Florida State's Xavier Rathan-Mayes and Louisville's Raymond Spalding during the previous season.

But the incidents weren't limited to collge days at Duke. One occurred when Milwaukee hosted Chicago on Jan. 21, 2022.

Chicago's Alex Caruso caught a pass from Ayo Dosunmu on a fast break, then Allen jumped to contest Caruso's layup. Allen grabbed and pulled his arm downward, which caused Caruso's nasty fall. Allen received a Flagrant 2 foul, automatic ejection, then visibly smirked en route to the locker room. The league suspended Allen for one game, and Caruso was sidelined with a fractured wrist for nearly two months.

"You can believe me, might not, it was an accident," he said. "So I think once people watch me, and I’ve been to four different teams now, and every spot I’ve been the fans kind of slowly change their minds and opinion. So I’ll just leave that up to people. I don’t go out there and try to change opinions, but that seems to happen when I go new places. So we’ll see.”

'He's a scrappy player'

Phoenix's first-year coach Frank Vogel and general manager James Jones aren't concerned about Allen's notoriety.

Vogel believes Allen's tenacity is a perfect fit for what he wants for his "scrappy as hell" defense, a phrase he originally used during his introductory press conference speech in Phoenix in June after he was hired.

“By nature, he’s a scrappy player. He plays extremely hard, plays extremely physical, and he’s an irritant," Vogel said. "You’d love guys like that on your team, and you hate playing against that. But a lot of irritant players in the NBA aren’t as skilled as Grayson Allen is. That’s what I love about what he bring to the table.”

Vogel added that Allen has a “rare combination” of an elite 3-point shooter, aggressive playmaker who attacks the basket, and possesses high IQ for making extra passes for better shot selection.

Allen's a capable high scorer who posted his career high 40 points in a game as a rookie, and has reached his other single-game best four steals three times.

Jones explained how Allen will adjust to Phoenix's culture, but condemned any behavior that crosses a line.

“I just think the mentality is not player individually. We just need a tough mentality, and you play on the edges," Jones said. "I’m not talking about playing reckless. We will never, ever encourage a player to injure someone. You can compete without being reckless. ...

"You’ll see that’s not who we are, that’s not who we’ve ever been, and players usually adapt. They’ll adapt and I’m pretty sure Grayson knows that if he’s surrounded by players that push it, maybe he doesn’t have to push as hard. But collectively as a group, yeah, we’re gonna play with an edge.”

With the exception of players such as Hall of Famer Grant Hill, Dallas All-Star Kyrie Irving, and Orlando's Rookie of the Year last season Paolo Banchero, Duke is known for producing role players with long NBA careers such as retirees JJ Redick and Shane Battier or Dallas' Seth Curry.

That's opposed to Kentucky's one-and-done NBA-ready star factory that produced Devin Booker. He said at Thursday's practice that he's witnessed Allen's rise since they were both in the high school Class of 2014 and Allen's outlasted many of their peers.

Allen credits Krzyzewski's team personnel adjustments and various roles he accepted in each of his four years there to develop versatility complementing elite players' skills and help his longevity in the league.

“I’ve played with really, really talented players for the past 10 years of my life, and it’s made it very easy in the NBA to adjust playing next to really talented guys," Allen said.

The biggest adjustment for Allen in Phoenix is more than just with basketball, but the impact on his wife, who has yet to move to Phoenix.

Allen spoke in reaction to his former Milwaukee teammate Jrue Holiday's wife and two-time Olympic gold medalist Lauren Holiday's viral letter posted on social media Wednesday. The letter humanized NBA players more than just millionaires, but having families and wives impacted by the cold NBA business from sudden trades. Holiday was traded from Milwaukee to Portland in the three-team trade, then to Boston.

"For most NBA players, I think your home environment becomes really important to you because everything, at least for me, it's been been very unstable outside of basketball. You're always on the road, I've changed cities four times, now, I've changed, places that I'm living five or six times now.

"The one stable thing is the people you have around you. So it makes it a lot easier, like for me as a married guy to come home and have that consistency that support group that's always there, no matter if I just had the worst day in the gym possible or if I killed it today. When they get here, when they get settled in, that will make it a lot easier."

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Phoenix Suns' Grayson Allen admits 'immaturity' for his past flagrant fouls