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.
Allen’s pick-and-roll play and the rim pressure element
Allen’s PnR play and the rim pressure element on offense
Seemingly from the jump in the time since the Cavaliers traded for him from the Brooklyn Nets early on in the 2020-21 campaign, we’ve seen Allen be a terrific pick-and-roll roller for Cleveland, as was on display in his time with Brooklyn.
Allen’s chemistry with Darius Garland in the PnR is one of the NBA’s best duos in that regard, with Allen being an outstanding screener for Garland to get to his spots to score and/or find shooters, and those two connect on their share of lobs regularly. Allen has amazing hands and gets up for those passes so well, leading to easy buckets for Cleveland.
Plus, Allen has shown in pick-and-roll that he can finish with authority, and via skill/push shots that he can be very effective at making plays inside from pocket pass deliveries from Garland, Donovan Mitchell or Caris LeVert. Plenty of that was demonstrated on Tuesday versus the Lakers, albeit with Anthony Davis out for most of the game because of flu-like symptoms.
Evan Mobley is more than capable of being a lob threat/interior target in those instances, too, he’s just not nearly the screener of Allen, given Allen being far stronger and sturdier at this point. That’s not to take anything away from Mobley, as he’d done a really nice job with Allen out, and has been putting it together in other ways of late.
Circling back to Allen, anyway, with his constant interior threat as a roller or dumpoff target, he can at times help open shooters on the perimeter such as Cedi Osman, or aid drivers such as Mitchell or Garland with his vertical spacing threat. One shouldn’t discount that, either.
From there, regarding the other end, in how Allen returning is a big boost for Cleveland, it’s his interior play defensively, in combination with his defensive rebounding, that are both humongous for the team.
Allen’s interior defense and rebounding on that end
Obviously, as we touched on earlier, Allen is one of the key reasons for the Cavaliers having one of the game’s most stout defenses; Cleveland is currently ranked first in defensive rating leaguewide, for context.
To the prior point, Allen’s interior defense is among the league’s elite, and with his rim protection, also combined with Mobley to a large degree, that’s been invaluable for the Cavs on that end of the floor in opposition of drivers, and that length deters shots in the paint.
Granted, the Lakers top paint scoring offense did work in that area on Tuesday, but Allen and the Cavaliers did tighten up in the fourth quarter, which was a driving force for them sparking a big run in that stretch. Forced turnovers, in that realm, gave the Cavs a jolt, too, along with Mitchell’s fourth quarter binge, of course.
In any case, while Allen’s interior defense is instrumental for the Cavaliers, and allows Mobley and others to be more dangerous off-ball, Allen’s defensive rebounding should pay dividends for Cleveland moving forward as well.
Now, credit to the Lakers’ offensive rebounding efforts, as they 14 offensive boards on Tuesday, but generally, Allen being back for the Cavs will be a notable boost for that area. Cleveland’s defensive rebounding percentage on the year has been fifth-best in the league, however, in the five games he was out, the Cavaliers were bottom-10 in the league in defensive rebounding percentage.
Kevin Love, one of the Cavs’ best defensive rebounders, missing three of those games (hairline fracture in his thumb) didn’t aid Cleveland there, either, as an aside. But overall, it’s apparent that Cleveland is far better when Allen can help secure defensive boards for extended stretches, as his positioning there, despite improvement from Evan, is still far better than Mobley’s.
Needless to say, Allen returning makes the Cavs just such a more well-rounded group on both ends of the floor, and seemingly a much more connected one at that.