Cavs: The three stars from their five-game road trip

The Cavs third star: Jarrett Allen

This past summer, the Cavs locked up their center of the future when they signed Jarrett Allen to a five-year, $100 million deal. While this move wasn’t universally praised, it is a move that seems to be working out, at least early on this season.

Allen isn’t going to be relied upon to fill up the scoring column on the stat sheet, as he can still make an impact with his rebounding and presence on the defensive end of the floor. Even taking that into account, in a couple of games on this past road trip, Allen helped the Cavaliers secure wins with his play on both ends of the floor.

In the opening game of the road trip in Denver, Allen went 10-of-11 from the floor for 21 points but also grabbed 16 rebounds going up against former MVP Nikola Jokic. Then in the final game of the road trip, Allen was outstanding again, as he scored 24 points (on 9-of-13 shooting) and collected 16 rebounds while also blocking three shots.

Suppose Cleveland gets performances like this from their man in the middle. In that case, it only makes the Wine and Gold that much tougher to defend, with Mobley, Garland, Collin Sexton, and Lauri Markkanen already contributing to the scoring column.

With eight games gone this season, the results for the Cavs have overall been more positive than negative. While the players’ recent performances mentioned above have helped the Cavaliers get to 4-4, it has taken a team effort to play well early on in this campaign.

Their performance on this most recent road trip should be a confidence booster for the young Cavs squad, especially since it came against some of the tougher competition in the NBA.

Cleveland has a talented young core and they should be able to build off this recent stretch as long as they can stay healthy.