One can’t overstate how pivotal Jarrett Allen is for Cavs’ defense

Last season, Jarrett Allen truly stamped himself as part of the Cleveland Cavaliers‘ foundation for the foreseeable future in what was an All-Star campaign.

Coming into last season, Allen signed a new five-year, $100 million contract with the Cavaliers, who locked him up prior to a possible restricted free agent offer sheet was offered by another team.

Some seemingly were critical of that deal, with Allen not being a stretch big, or an offensive hub-type guy, but after the team acquired him as part of the early 2021 James Harden mega deal from the Brooklyn Nets, it was apparent that Allen looked to be a long-term piece.

In the 2021-22 season, Allen also backed up the new deal from last offseason, as he had career-bests in points and rebounds per outing with 16.1 and 10.8, respectively. He did show marketed improvements in his offensive touch in the paint, was very effective on hook shots on post-ups, made plays as a roller and he looked better on push shots with both shots as a cutter. There were positive self-creation signs as well.

On the other end, Allen was a big-time player for the Cavaliers, too. He and Evan Mobley, even with Mobley as a rookie, were the guys that really drove Cleveland’s defensive turnaround last season, and their presence was something else.

Mobley looks to be a generational talent on that end of the floor, with his rim protection, active hands, switchability, his spacial awareness, and intuition. His ceiling is sky high on that end at 6-foot-11 and with room to get stronger, clearly.

In Allen’s case, though, he again is such a lynchpin-type player for Cleveland’s defense, and that’s evident moving forward.

One can’t overstate how pivotal Allen is for the Cavs’ defense.

It’s tough to oversell Allen’s defensive impact, and we saw how his absence in most of post-All-Star break play was detrimental to Cleveland.

The Cavs were just 9-15 in post-All-Star break play, and when Allen went out on March 6 up until Cleveland’s play-in loss to the Atlanta Hawks, Cleveland was not the same defensively, and 22nd post-All-Star overall, highlighted by their issues during that span, when they had a defensive rating of 117.3. Mobley did miss some games too, and Dean Wade’s absence didn’t help, either, for context.

There were some rough games even with Allen before that near the break, for much of last season, however, Allen, especially in tandem with Mobley, was so effective for the Cavaliers on defense. Those two guys were the crucial reason why Cleveland was fifth in defensive rating last year overall.

I’ll never discount Mobley’s impact there, but with Allen in this sense, he had a terrific defensive season in 2021-22, and he’s invaluable there. He, combined with Mobley, led to Cleveland conceding the lowest opponent field goal percentage at the rim last season at 60.5 percent, per NBA.com’s tracking data.

Furthermore, among qualified players, Allen conceded the lowest field goal percentage within six feet of the basket in 2021-22 at 48.6 percent, as pointed out in a tweet by BasketballNews.com. For what it’s worth, Mobley placed eighth in that category at 52.8 percent.

So, while it’s not breaking news, per se, it’s tough to overstate how pivotal Allen is for the Cavaliers in general, but even more so on defense. He helps others be more aggressive with ball pressure, and along with the rim protection/shot altering, Allen improved his quickness last season, and demonstrated positive signs toward being switchable if needed at times.

He’s not going to be Mobley in that way, however, Allen’s more capable than most truer 5s in that area, and he’s still only 24, so in coming years, that’s an area I could foresee him getting better at. It’s a reasonable expectation, in my opinion.

Now, the Cavaliers and Allen himself do need to improve in the defensive rebounding department overall, and Lauri Markkanen next season I do think can help more in that area, with him more comfortable with Mobley and Allen the next go-round. And with more experience, that issue can be cleaned up, with guys getting more time together, and alongside others.

In general, though, looking onward, the Cavs should know how crucial Allen is for their defensive efforts as the backline guy, and key communicator. Hopefully he stays healthy for the most part moving forward, as when he wasn’t in there, this club wasn’t the same.

It’s telling that Cleveland gave up 4.2 points per 100 possessions less when Allen was on the floor last season, which ranked in the 81st percentile, per Cleaning The Glass. His minimal fouling when relative to the amount of shots he contests played into that, too.

The gist is, Allen is quite the defensive anchor for the Cavaliers, and should be able to build on a great defensive season in 2021-22 from here.