Cleveland Cavaliers: Evaluating the state of the C position
Evaluating the state of the C position: Strengths
Assuming the team brings back Jarrett Allen, the strength of the position for the Cleveland Cavaliers centers around him and, largely, him alone. He is the quintessential low-usage, high-impact center, setting crushing screens, diving hard for the rim and providing high-level rim protection on defense.
Especially on a team with two high-usage guards in Darius Garland and Collin Sexton, Allen can help the team without demanding a heavy dose of touches. He is a dependent player, with 88.7 percent of his non-putback 2-pointers assisted last year. He isn’t setting up to work in the post, but rather taking passes on the role and from the dunker’s spot and sending them home. Unless you’re Nikola Jokic or Joel Embiid, thriving without needing post touches is a positive for most centers.
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Allen is a strong rebounder, pulling in 10 rebounds per game last season. He does so by cleaning the glass on both ends of the court, ranking 13th in the league in defensive rebounding percentage and 10th for offensive rebounds, for a composite seventh-place ranking in total rebounds. When Allen is on the court, the Cavaliers have an instant advantage on the boards.
Defensively Allen is also an impact player, protecting the rim in a traditional sense. His block percentage, per Dunks & Threes, was 4.1 percent, good for the 89th percentile leaguewide. He averaged 1,4 blocks per game last year to look at the raw numbers, and despite playing on a pair of terrible defensive teams in Brooklyn and Cleveland still finished with a positive defensive EPM for the season.
One final strength for the Cavaliers is that they do have a few different looks they can produce at center. Kevin Love has experience playing the five and instantly flips the script offensively, giving the Cavs a spacing-5 who can create offense at times. If they want to go small, Larry Nance Jr. is a strong defender with reasonable rim protection skills to better execute a switching scheme.
Strengths: Rebounding, Finishing, Rim Protection, Versatility