Cavs: 3 reasons Jarrett Allen contract is a serious overpay

3) Money doesn’t grow on trees

With Allen signing this massive deal with the Cavs, where does this put the rest of the team financially? This new contract now makes Allen the second-highest paid player on the team below only Kevin Love’s $31 million due this next season. I’m not a huge cap space guru so I’m not sure how this all completely affects the Cavs’ financial situation, but I do know the Cavs are set on building around a core of young players like Isaac Okoro, Collin Sexton and Darius Garland.

Sexton is due $6.3 million this next season. Okoro is due $6.7 million and Garland is due $7 million. With Larry Nance Jr due just under $11 million and Kevin Love due over $31 million you start to question how soon these other players are, especially the younger players going to like the fact that their buddy now is making a ton more money then them. Will there be any distractions because of that stark difference in contracts to create problems amongst teammates?

I know if I were in my early 20’s and I knew you made a boat load more money then me, and we were playing on the same team I might be just a tad jealous!

Chemistry for a team is a hard thing to develop especially when money is a factor. Watching past teams and players I’ve coached, who weren’t NBA players, try to play together when there was no money involved as far as performance was tough enough. Now you add in that extra greedy green stuff, and you could have even more problems. I hope current Cavs coach J.B Bickerstaff is preparing to deal with this substantial lopsided contract that has been gift wrapped by the Cavs’ front office staff to Allen.

In the end Allen is the big winner. At such a young age I certainly hope he takes care of his newfound fortune and doesn’t let the money affect his play, play that still needs a lot of improvement if the Cavs are going to contend in the future. The Cavs are certainly taking a big gamble on Allen. I’m just not sure it was the best move on the night.

Time will tell. As they say in Las Vegas, “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas!” But with this exposed gamble, that might not be able to occur. I certainly hope the Cavs have a good alibi.