Cavs: Jarrett Allen has looked good for most part since return

The Cleveland Cavaliers had been without the services of Jarrett Allen up until the last three games for a decent stretch of outings.

Allen, along with Larry Nance Jr. (illness), made his return this past Wednesday at the Charlotte Hornets for the Cavaliers.

Leading into that outing, which, though LaMelo Ball and Gordon Hayward were not involved, and likely won’t be active the rest of this season because of wrist and foot injuries, was a nice Cavs win, led by Taurean Prince’s 25 points. He’s been feeling it as a shooter lately, too.

Cleveland has since that one been handled by the Golden State Warriors this past Thursday, who were on the second leg of a back-to-back in that as well, even. And although Zach LaVine (COVID-19 health and safety protocols) wasn’t involved, and could reportedly be out in other upcoming games, the Cavaliers were defeated by the Chicago Bulls on Saturday on the road.

On a positive note, though, Allen has done a nice job in his return for the Wine and Gold since missing an eight-game span due to a concussion/the league’s concussion protocol, from my perspective.

Allen has looked good for the most part since returning for the Cavs.

Allen’s looked to have been his typical self on both ends, as he’s been very active on the interior and on the glass, to go with as a screener. Allen’s two-man game with Darius Garland has been on display some in pick-and-roll, for him as a roller/lob threat, and that sort of thing consistently provides Cleveland quality looks, as we’ve seen often.

The Texas product has done a workmanlike job in the offensive rebounding/putback department, too, with 2.7 per game in the game since his return, as has been the case since he was acquired via trade from the Brooklyn Nets in mid-January. We’ll continue to see that play out looking onward, too.

And in these past few games, overall, Jarrett’s been solid, as usual, in averaging 14.0 points and 11.0 rebounds on 60.0 percent shooting. He’s capitalized often from the free throw line as well, having hit 4.0 of his 4.7 attempts per outing in those three, an 85.7 percent clip, which has been nice to see as well.

On the defensive end, we haven’t seen the blocked shots we typically see in these past few much, but Allen I thought has been active as an interior rotator often still. And he has had a number of instances where his presence as a helper/rim protector did lead to altered shots. That’s also been a key positive, to go with the aforementioned rebounding efforts.

Granted, at times, Allen did have some issues getting over/out to help contesting three-point looks and/or drives against the likes of Stephen Curry, for one, and somewhat in relation to others from a rotational sense in that Golden State game. Albeit he was hardly the only Cleveland Cavaliers player that had some issues defensively against Golden State, and he did still alter shots meaningfully inside on that end.

Anyway, while his matchup defensively was a particularly tough one against Nikola Vucevic in that Bulls matchup, who had success against Allen, Jarrett’s screening at the other end did help open up room for Collin Sexton and Garland.

And he had his share of offensive rebounds, with four of them, and though he only had two assists, he did have some other nice passes, and I thought his handoffs aided perimeter threats, even though Cleveland didn’t necessarily take full advantage of those enough.

Moreover, Allen looks to be fully back from missing those eight games because of the prior concussion/concussion protocol, and that’s been very encouraging. Now as far as others, though, Isaiah Hartenstein will still get his share of burn, and should, based on how well he’s played off the bench.

Some lineups with Dean Wade even at a jumbo 3 we could still see, too, with Kevin Love and/or Larry Nance Jr. perhaps at the 4 with Allen, which is an interesting dynamic in spurts. So we’ll keep an eye out for that in upcoming games, too.

Regardless, I’d say for the most part, Allen has played well in his games back, although Vucevic did have some success against him, as he has against so many others.

For the Cavs, that’s been a plus, and it’s been nice to at least see Allen have some meaningful run with Kevin Love, who has since been back and looks mostly healthy. As a brief side note, Nance is reportedly not in action for Cleveland on Monday against the Detroit Pistons, with a personal designation; he seems to be getting himself back physically, though.