Tony Allen watches an insane amount of film

Tony Allen is one of the best perimeter defenders in basketball. He's been named to two First-Team All-Defense teams and is routinely recognized as someone opposing guards want to avoid as much as they possibly can. 

In Memphis' current series against Golden State, Allen is tasked with slowing down one of the two Splash Brothers, Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson, at all times. It's a suicide mission for most players, but not Allen. 

Not only does he have freakish athleticism and incomprehensible body control, but Allen prepares as much as anybody by watching an unhealthy amount of film to ingrain all his opponent's tendencies to memory.

Here's what Allen recently told ESPN's Michael Wallace:

"I’d grab our video equipment guy and say, 'Who I got tomorrow?' I’d tell him I wanted all of their offensive sets, and I want you to give me their three previous games. I want to see their isolation situations. I want to see every time they caught it in a set when he was aggressive, every time he got it in transition. I would break that down. I study and eat all that up."

Allen's persona is a bit aloof; someone living in his own universe who wakes up, drives to the arena and shuts down whoever his coach points a finger at. But that's obviously not the case. His tremendous work ethic is as much a cause for all his success as anything else. 

It's bad news for every guard in the league.

(h/t: ESPN)

Photo Credit: Nelson Chenault/USA TODAY Sports