Report: Rival Teams Expected Harsher Grayson Allen Punishment for Flagrant Foul

The one-game suspension for Milwaukee Bucks guard Grayson Allen for his flagrant foul on Chicago Bulls guard Alex Caruso reportedly does not sit well with other teams around the league.

NBA insider Marc Stein wrote Tuesday that he expected Allen to receive a harsher punishment, and he reported that he spoke to rival teams who were expecting the same thing:

"I'm not the only one who feels this way, either. I've heard from a handful of rival teams, with no stake in the matter beyond watching intently for the NBA’s reaction after the Bulls so vociferously complained about Allen's actions, that expected Allen to be punished harder as a deterrent to future foulers."

In the third quarter of Friday's game, Caruso went up for a layup in transition when Allen contested the shot by using his left hand to pull Caruso down out of the air and swiping at him with his right hand. Caruso hit the ground hard, and the Bulls announced Saturday that he's expected to miss six-to-eight weeks with a broken right wrist.

Allen was ejected from the game after the flagrant-2, but the play drew the ire of Bulls head coach Billy Donovan.

"For Alex to be in the air like that and for [Allen] to take him down like that, he could have ended his career," Donovan said after Friday's game. "[Allen] has a history of this. That, to me, was really dangerous. I really hope the league takes a hard look at something like that because he could have really, really seriously hurt [Caruso]."

Stein noted that multiple NBA reporters were informed that Caruso's injury would factor into the league's punishment for Allen. He stated that he thought the play warranted a suspension of at least three games.

"The issue here is that the league’s assurance that Caruso's fate would be part of the suspension calculus suggested in advance that Allen would receive more than a wrist slap," Stein wrote. "He didn’t."

Allen has a history of on-court incidents dating back to his college days at Duke.

There were multiple instances in which he appeared to intentionally try to trip opposing players. He was stripped of his captaincy and suspended for one game by Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski after he tripped a player for the third time in his junior year.

Allen will serve his suspension when the Bucks return to action Wednesday against the Cleveland Cavaliers at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.