Cavs: One stud and one dud from win over Nuggets
By Corey Casey
Cavs stud: Jarrett Allen
Jarrett Allen continues his strong early start to this 2021-22 season. In this game, he led the Cavs in both points and rebounds with 21 and 16 respectively. What’s more impressive is that Allen once again was incredibly efficient, shooting 10-of-11 from the field overall.
It’s early, but Allen has argubly through four games been the Cavaliers’ most consistent player. For the season Allen is averaging 17.0 points, 9.5 rebounds, 1.3 steals and 0.8 blocks, and shooting 83.8 percent from the field. Now, his shots come from in the deep paint, but that’s still been something else, truthfully.
What’s more impressive about this is Allen did this while also having to go up against one of the league’s best bigs and players in Nikola Jokic. Allen isn’t the player Jokic is, but Allen came close to matching Jokic in terms of production on this night. This is also the second time in four games that Allen has scored 20 or more points.
It often gets forgotten, but Allen is still a very young player (only 23 years old), and he looks more polished offensively this year. And after getting traded to the Cavaliers in the early part of the season last year from the Brooklyn Nets, he was a very solid addition, and was one of the few bright spots for the Cavs. Even with that having been the case, though, he looks improved and more comfortable in Cleveland’s offense.
After getting a big contract in the offseason, it’s early, but Allen is validating his five-year, $100 million deal signed after he was originally extended a qualifying offer as a then-set to be restricted free agent.
Rebuilding in the NBA is hard and takes time. Koby Altman gets a lot of critisism as a general manager, but he’s done a number of good things as GM of the Cavs, too. And being able to get Allen in a multi-team trade last year centered on James Harden heading to Brooklyn has definitely been one of his best moves as GM of the Cavs.