Allen dishes out advice

Celtics guard Ray Allen had dinner with friend and former Milwaukee teammate Michael Redd Saturday night and talked about the good old days when Redd was breaking into the league as a rookie with the Bucks and Allen was one of the team's veteran stars.

"I haven't seen Mike in maybe a year or so," said Allen before Sunday's game against the Bucks at the Bradley Center. "I told him I miss him because I hadn't seen him in awhile and I hadn't been able to talk to him. So we had a chance to sit down and talk about a lot of things that occurred in the past, things we enjoyed.

"We had great times and great teammates. We talked about old teammates and great moments, and he's still the same guy that he was when I remember him first coming into the league."

Allen offered a bit of player-to-player advice to Redd as he comes back from his knee injury.

"I told him that whatever goes on here for the rest of the season, he's back now and I said from a player perspective, you have to get everybody on the same page and you have to create a ship that's unsinkable and you have to make sure that you make all the young guys understand what winning is about.

"You may not win the game but understand how to do things the right way when you get in that locker room together. Because he's been gone, so you see certain things that are happening and as a veteran player, you have to make sure everyone is on the same page. That's what he has to institute once he kind of gets back."

Much water has passed under the bridge since the Bucks traded Allen, who along with Sam Cassell and Glenn Robinson formed a "Big Three," to Seattle in 2003 and Allen said what he remembered most about playing in Milwaukee was his teammates

And it's not the names you might expect.

"I think about Elliot Perry and Michael Curry probably the most because those two were very integral in who I am today and creating habits," Allen said. "Two guys who are very blue collar in this league and for me to be associated and connected with them early, you learn the frugalities of professional sports. So I was glad that I had somebody like that. They're guys that voiced their opinions and you just listen to them and I feel myself being the same way around these guys."