Tony Allen likes to joke around, whether he is laughing with his teammates or rapping along to the music blaring out of his headphones. It's hard to ignore Allen's presence in the locker room. But behind his grin and carefree demeanor there is a player who is battling with doubt and uncertainty.

Allen's explosiveness – the key to his game – was taken away from him when he blew out his knee last January. Since then he has struggled to regain his slashing ability and aggressive intensity that made him a fearless competitor last season. Allen opened up to HOOPSWORLD about his long road to recovery, wondering 'What If?' and the power of Ubuntu.

How much do you think about last season?

"All the time. Every day."

What do you think about?

"I just think about if I were healthy would I have been in this trade, how much confidence I would have had going into this season. But now the reality of it is, I'm just getting over all that and just think about how I can get back to that level."

Where is your confidence at now?

"If I had to put it in a percentage, I'm about 70%."

What is it going to take to get the other 30% back?

"Oh man, just being able to explode and dunk to where I want to dunk. Basically just my lift. When I get my lift back, my confidence is just …" (shakes his head)

Since you are such an explosive player, how have you had to adjust your game to adapt to the injury?

"Basically just feeding off the guys that make it easy for me, like (Rajon) Rondo, Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, and Kevin Garnett."

What has the support of your teammates been like during your comeback?

"Huge! Everybody's been pushing me in the weight room, just telling me stay focused, stay ready, and just accept the process. It isn't going to come over night."

But it helps to be recovering on a team that's winning, right?

"Yeah, it helps to be with all my teammates … I mean, everybody. It's Ubuntu right now and we've got that going."

Earlier this week, Celtics coach Doc Rivers showed his faith in Allen's defense by putting him in the game to get a last-second stop on the Detroit Pistons. Allen forced a game-changing steal, and even though his foul on Chauncey Billups led to the Pistons' close win, Rivers said not to blame Allen and that he would go to him in the same situation again. Even if Allen doesn't all of his confidence back yet, his team has confidence in him.