All it took was some timely moves and a little draft luck but it seems like the Cleveland Cavaliers are back to NBA competence for the first time in the post-LeBron James era. With the promotion of head coach J.B. Bickerstaff, the Cavaliers adopted the “dog” mentality, forming an identity defensively while playing through their best players on offense.
Even with injuries to the majority of their key players and having one of, if not the hardest schedule to start the season, the team is still sitting 3 games above .500 and is in sole possession of the sixth seed in the Eastern Conference.
The pinnacle of this season’s success has come over the last four games where the Cavs have pummelled teams as of late. Over every team’s last four games, the Cavaliers are one of two teams to be undefeated in that stretch, the other being the Houston Rockets. Over that stretch, their defensive rating sits at 97.7, the best in the league. They are also averaging the second-most blocks per game, have the best defensive rebounding percentage, and have limited their opponents to just 41.5 points in the paint.
Offensively, the team has been clicking during this stretch, averaging 111.5 points per game, dominating teams in the paint, and taking advantage of open threes when defenders collapse on their bigs.
The biggest factors to this team’s success over that stretch have been the tandem of Darius Garland and Jarrett Allen, both of whom are having All-Star-level seasons for the Cavaliers. With the All-Star game being in Cleveland, the media may have an extra incentive to get at least one of these players to participate in All-Star festivities this February.
With that said, we’ll discuss each player’s likelihood of accomplishing something only a few Cavaliers players have been able to over the last two decades.
What’s the likelihood of Darius Garland making the All-Star Game?
Throughout the offseason, the talk of the town in Cleveland was the expected jump that Darius Garland was to make in his play. Over the years, Garland has gotten high recognition from both players and the media for his ability to shoot from distance and facilitate at a high level. Combine that with his incredible handle and you have a unique guard that could take this team to new heights.
To start this season, Garland hasn’t disappointed. With the unfortunate injury to Collin Sexton, Garland saw an uptick in his offensive opportunities and has made the most out of them. During this four-game dominance that the Cavs have displayed, Garland has averaged 23 points and 9.3 assists per game, shooting 54.7 percent from the field and 54.2 percent from deep on six attempts per game. This stretch includes a 32-point, 10-assist, 8-rebound outing against the Washington Wizards, showing once again how special he is, as KJG’s Robbie DiPaola hit on.
Looking at his season stats as a whole, on the year he is averaging 19.1 points and 7.3 assists per game on 46.7/37.8/86.3 shooting splits. Looking at these stats compared to his peers, Garland is just one of eight players in the NBA averaging at least 19 points and 7 assists per game, per NBA.com. The other six include multi-time All-Stars and All-NBA players and LaMelo Ball, who is in competition with Garland in making his first All-Star game this season.
Looking at the running list of things it takes to make an All-Star team, Garland has the media attention with the Cavs playing winning basketball, his individual success is comparable to the top guards in the league, and he has gotten high praise and recognition from the NBA’s top players.
Next, looking at the likelihood of Garland making an All-Star team, we have to look at his competition.
The NBA All-Star game consists of 24 players with 10 starters and 14 reserves from each conference. The starters include two backcourt players and three frontcourt players. The reserve unit has the same format and then two “wildcard” spots, meaning two more spots for top players from their respective conference. So with that let’s get into Garland’s competition.
Looking at the Eastern Conference once more, the starting guards are expected to be two of James Harden, Trae Young, Bradley Beal, and Zach LaVine. From there, things get interesting.
Off the bench, the other two that don’t make it look to be the first two guards off the bench. Looking at Wild Cards, with guys like Jimmy Butler, Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, and DeMar DeRozan having the frontcourt classification, they may occupy those spots instead of a guard spot. For the wild card spots, Garland’s competition as of now looks to be guys like LaMelo Ball, Domantas Sabonis, Nikola Vucevic, and Khris Middleton, to name a few.
There’s also the potential for guys like Fred VanVleet, Kyle Lowry, and even his own teammate Jarrett Allen, who we’ll get to in a few, to grab a wild card spot.
Essentially, the path for Garland to become an All-Star seems to be either being voted in by the coaches or being an injury replacement.
Similar to what KJG’s own Will Holtz discussed in an article about Garland, I too believe that Garland can be an All-Star this season as long as his scoring production stays up and the Cavaliers continue to win, but it will be tough.
What’s the likelihood of Jarrett Allen making the All-Star Game?
Looking at Allen, his case to make the All-Star team is easier than Garland’s. Jarrett Allen is in the midst of a career year, putting up career-highs in points, rebounds, assists, steals, field goal percentage, and free throw percentage.
The leap that Allen has made not only puts him along with the upper echelon of bigs in the NBA but, makes him a strong candidate for the Most Improved Player award.
Currently, he is second in the NBA in dunks made, is tied for the fourth-most 15-plus-rebound games in the NBA with 6, per StatMuse, and is one of eight players in the NBA averaging at least 16 points and 11 rebounds, per NBA.com. Might I add, he’s doing that with the third-best field goal percentage in the entire league at 71.1 percent, per Basketball Reference.
So, how likely is it that he makes the All-Star game?
Looking at frontcourt starters for this season, three of Giannis Antetokounmpo, Joel Embiid, Kevin Durant, DeMar DeRozan, Jayson Tatum, and Jimmy Butler are likely to start. Big question marks however surround Joel Embiid due to missed time and guys like Jimmy Butler and DeMar DeRozan who could both be voted in as guards rather than forwards.
Looking at reserve frontcourt players, his biggest competition looks to be those frontcourt players who aren’t starters as well as guys like Domantas Sabonis, Julius Randle, and Nikola Vucevic, to name a few.
Of those three, the Pacers are the 13th seed in the East, Vucevic’s numbers are down a ton this season, and Julius Randle vs. Jarrett Allen could go either way.
Looking at other frontcourt players in the East, Bam is set to miss more than a month of basketball with an unfortunate thumb injury and the rarity of a reserve making an All-Star team hinders Montrezl Harrell’s chances.
As of now, Allen is the best chance the Cavaliers possess of having an All-Star this season. In my opinion, I see him as a solidified reserve who could turn into a wild card player if the Cavaliers fall out of playoff position or if his play dips.
Either way, the Cavs having multiple players with a chance of making the All-Star Game is awesome and we’ll see how the All-Star race shapes up in the next month.