The Cleveland Cavaliers acquired a very young and promising center in Jarrett Allen in the four-team blockbuster deal that sent James Harden to the Brooklyn Nets. After nearly a month after his arrival with the team, it was mutually agreed between Andre Drummond/his camp and the Cavs that Drummond would sit in his remaining time with Cleveland until he was traded, or perhaps eventually bought out.
Factoring into that agreement was that Cleveland was committed to Allen becoming their starting center, and it appears he’s their long-term answer at the position.
They’ll seemingly commit to him long-term in the coming offseason, whether that’s via new deal or potentially matching a restricted offer sheet. He’s Cleveland’s 5 of the future, point being.
Nonetheless, some Cavaliers fans may have reason to be concerned about the recent performances of Allen since the team returned from the All-Star break. During his short stint with the Cavs before the All-Star break, Allen was playing incredible basketball for them and playing his role on the team almost perfectly.
Before the break, Allen was averaging 14.7 points on 66.7 percent shooting, to go with 9.6 rebounds, 1.7 blocks and 1.7 assists per game. This is even more impressive when taking into account that there were a fair amount of games when Allen was coming off of the bench and played reduced minutes compared to where he stands now.
However, it is clear that Allen’s numbers have taken a huge dip since the team returned from the All-Star break. In the four games that Allen has played in since the second half of the season began, he has only averaged 7.3 points on 41.7 percent shooting, albeit he has still averaged 8.8 rebounds and 1.8 blocks per outing. He hasn’t nearly the same impact, by and large, though.
It is very hard to argue that if his numbers continue to look more like they have in the second half of the season that there will be no reason to be concerned about Allen and his future with the Cavaliers. For the time being it is simply an overreaction to be greatly concerned over a four-game slump, though.
The Cavs shouldn’t be concerned with Allen’s slow start to the second half.
Meanwhile, the teams that Cleveland’s played since beginning the second half of the year are the New Orleans Pelicans, the Atlanta Hawks, the Miami Heat and the Boston Celtics.
All of these teams either have elite defensive big men or play small-ball in the case of the Celtics. Albeit outside of the Celtics, Allen has had to, most notably, face off against Steven Adams on the Pelicans, and Bam Adebayo on the Heat. Clint Capela was not in action in that Atlanta game, though.
In any case, it is very unfair and a bit overdramatic to be concerned about Allen over this tough stretch of games. He is a great young center that is experiencing a bit of a slow start against elite competition guarding him, and Darius Garland not having been active at New Orleans didn’t help, Although the ineffectiveness obviously can’t continue for a more extended stretch for Jarrett.
The true concern comes from the type of player that Allen is. While of course rim protection and rim-running is meaningful, for one, in today’s league, which is so predicated on perimeter shooting and players being pretty interchangeable, interior-laiden centers that are non-shooters can be somewhat marginalized.
Allen is still an very effective player when on, though, and I’m not saying he’s not; his style of 5 is just fairly limited in terms of game-to-game impact is all and hopefully the 22-year-old can further develop in the near future offensively.
Moreover, in the largely analytics-driven and perimeter-oriented style of basketball that is played today where teams can fairly often play small-ball/pace-and-space, or have an elite center that is more of a shooting presence, the concern should not be placed on Allen but rather the archetype of an interior-oriented center as a whole.
Allen isn’t going to consume a ton of possessions, no, but adding spacing horizontally in the near future somehow would make him all the more valuable.