Cavs: Best and worst-case scenarios for Jarrett Allen this season

Cavs: Best-case scenario for Jarrett Allen

While Jarrett Allen brings a lot of things to the table, to this point in his career he has not been a prolific scorer. As he gets more comfortable with the ball in his hands he should continue to improve slightly, and the more spacing around him, the better he will do finishing and making decisions with the ball.

Upon joining the Cavs last year, Allen averaged a career-best 13.2 points per game. He could easily build on that, and let’s say that playing more with floor-spacers like Lauri Markkanen opens up the court for him to get to 15 points per game on his usual solid efficiency. He even starts taking a 3-pointer per game, hitting 36 percent on limited volume.

With Evan Mobley likely to be a below-average rebounder for his position and plenty of shots pouring in from the perimeter, Allen will stay active on the glass and could even increase his already-prolific rebounding numbers. Averaging 11 per game, and totaling 55 double-doubles on the season, is very much in the realm of possibility.

Defensively Allen could truly begin to assert himself, serving a role similar to Rudy Gobert in dropping back into the paint and deterring perimeter players who blow past the Cavs’ perimeter defenders. His block totals should only go up, and he can average something like 2.0 blocks per game while decreasing opponents’ field goal percentage at the rim by a substantial margin.

In all for our best-case scenario, Allen is dropping 15-11-2 on excellent efficiency, playing a career-best 32 minutes per game. He gets votes for the All-Defensive team as the Cavs take a legitimate step forward out of the 10 worst defenses in the league. Most importantly, lineups with Allen and Evan Mobley have a positive net rating on the year.