It’s tough to exactly quantify what Jarrett Allen means for this Cleveland Cavaliers team. He’s one of the two anchors to their defense, in tandem with Evan Mobley, and Allen is one of the vocal leaders on that end for the team, and his rolling, screening and finishing are all instrumental.
It is nice for the Cavaliers, of course, to have Mobley, for some starts if needed to fill in at the 5 if Allen’s out, as we had seen in the past five games prior to Cleveland’s win on Tuesday versus the Los Angeles Lakers. Allen was back in there in that one, but had been out because of a lower back contusion.
Coming off that, it might take Allen a game or a few games to get back into the swing of things, and conditioning-wise, involving game speed, perhaps. He looked great for the Cavs in that game, though, and if he can remain in there for the Cavaliers for the most part looking onward, it’s big for the Wine and Golders, given Allen’s presence on both ends of the floor.
On the season, Allen has had 14.1 points, 10.8 rebounds and 1.2 blocks per contest, and has connected on 76.8 percent of his free throw attempts. It’s also notable that when Allen has played, the Cavaliers have had a 13-5 record.
With that said, with Allen back for the Cavs, that should be a boost for Cleveland on both ends, clearly.
We’ll highlight those aspects of the game on offense and defense, regarding Allen’s return for the Cavs, here.
On offense, that pertains to the pick-and-roll/rim pressure element.