The Cleveland Cavaliers have swept the Brooklyn Nets, the team that traded away Jarrett Allen and Taurean Prince.
Super-teams. Those teams have the best chance to win, right? Well, the last two Cavs-Nets matchups will say otherwise.
In the first matchup of the two-game series, if you will, the Cavs beat the Nets with all three superstars active for the Nets. On Friday, the Cavs beat the Nets once again, this time with Kevin Durant on the bench (Achilles).
Before these two teams met in Cleveland, the Cavs acquired Jarrett Allen and Taurean Prince in a blockbuster four-team trade that also sent James Harden to the Nets. Allen and Prince both saw their first action in a Cavs uniform against their former team, and looked very solid.
Prince and Allen have been notable contributors early on for the Cavs, and should continue to be.
In Wednesday’s matchup, Allen had 12 points and 11 rebounds, as it was overall a very impressive double-double in his Cavs debut. Allen was also everywhere on defense, as he added four blocks as well. Prince, a solid bench scorer, added 17 points in his debut. As the two are most likely playing inspired because they were recently traded, the Cavs need them to keep this momentum and production going moving forward if they want to be successful.
In Friday’s game, both Allen and Prince again had very solid outings. Prince added another 14 points off the bench, while Allen had 19 points as well as six rebounds.
It seems as if they acquired these two players for next to nothing, as the only thing really of note they surrendered was a first-round pick via the Milwaukee Bucks to the Houston Rockets that will most likely end up being in the last 20’s. And that’s a very hard pick to land on in the NBA.
Overall, I see Allen being a piece of the Cavs for a really long time, and it appears that he very well will. Allen is only 22, and is the kind of player who had reportedly been coveted by the Cavs long before the trade that just occurred, per a report from Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor (subscription required).
Rumors/reports of the Cavs already speaking of an off-season extension for Allen, who is set to be a restricted free agent this offseason, have been spreading, and they make complete sense. Cavs center JaVale McGee is likely to be moved at some point before the deadline, and per a report from Sam Amico of OutKick and Forty Eight Minutes, the Nets are expected to “make a run” at McGee, who is due to be expiring and is set to make a team-friendly $4.2 million this year.
Nets and Cavs meeting for second time tonight, and sources tell @FortyEightMins to expect Nets to make a run at acquiring Cavs backup center JaVale McGee soon. Brooklyn has 2 available roster spots and looking for another veteran presence in the middle.
— Sam Amico (@AmicoHoops) January 23, 2021
So it will be Allen and other center Andre Drummond for the time being, anyhow.
As for Prince, he too is young. At 26 years old, hopefully the Cavs can keep Prince around, as he has the capability of adding around 10 or so points a night off the bench if given real minutes and is a decent-sized defender as well at 6-foot-7. He is set to be expiring next season, though, so we’ll see looking onward.
The Cavs take on the Boston Celtics Sunday night, which is another great test to see where this team stands in terms of a competitive perspective. Depth is always a valuable thing, something the Cavs have a lot of.
If they can just stay healthy, or at least reasonably, winning a decent amount of games this season is not far out of the picture.