Free-agent guard Ray Allen was drawing interest from a handful of teams in free agency but had his choices seemingly limited to returning to the Boston Celtics or moving on to South Beach to play for the NBA champion Miami Heat. Allen was reportedly torn on the decision between the two teams, but late Friday night decided to make the movie to Miami.

With Allen leaving Boston, the Celtics are left wondering where they have to go from there, Jeff Clark of CelticsBlog explains:

As others have pointed out, Ray leaving hurts, but it also makes it a lot easier to fill out our bench. In a sense, Terry replaces Ray Allen and now we'll have the money to bring back the rest of the bench. It also increases the odds that we'll overpay for Jeff Green but we'll just have to wait until we see the final numbers on that before we judge. Also, this might open the door for Danny Ainge to get creative and swing some kind of trade.

Allen's defection to Miami has of course caused many Celtics fans to cry out about betrayal and loyalty, but the problem there is that Boston as a franchise hasn't shown much loyalty to Allen either. Allen has been dangled at the trade deadline the past two seasons as Ian Thomsen of SI.com points out.

There is nothing hypocritical about Allen's decision to switch sides in the East's best rivalry. Allen has spent the last several midseason trading deadlines dealing with rumors that Boston would move him, and last March he was told that he had been sent to Memphis before the trade was rescinded.

For more on the Miami Heat and Ray Allen, visit SB Nation's Heat blog Peninsula Is Mightier and SB Nation Tampa Bay.