The Cleveland Cavaliers are minimizing Jarrett Allen.
You can perhaps quibble with the wording of that statement, but the reality is that as Kenny Atkinson has sought to modernize the offense, he has done two primary things: prioritized Evan Mobley's role in the offense, and sought to reduce the time when there are two non-shooters on the court.
The Mobley component has worked incredibly well, with the fourth-year big man expanding his game on offense and on track to make the All-Star team -- if not an All-NBA team. He has also slightly increased his 3-point volume and accuracy, becoming more confident on the perimeter.
It's also hard to argue that the changes are not working for the Cavaliers as a team; they have the league's best offense and are 28-4 through 32 games, the best record in the league. Point guard Darius Garland is humming in the new offense, Caris LeVert is having a career year, and role players like Ty Jerome and Georges Niang have found new life.
Jarrett Allen has a smaller role
The one player who is not seeing new heights in this offense is Jarrett Allen. The former All-Star center is ostensibly one of the "Big 4" in Cleveland, but the other three stars get the lion's share of the attention, the points and even the playing time. Atkinson has often kept Allen on the bench during the second half of games in order to increase Mobley's minutes at center, or even to go to smallball looks like Dean Wade or Georges Niang at center.
That's not simply the eye test or small sample-size extrapolation, either. Last season Allen averaged 31.7 minutes per game; this year that number is down to 29.2. 10.6 shot attempts have dropped to just 7.9 per game. 16.5 points down to 13.3.
NBA players get where they are because of a deep belief in themselves. If Atkinson and the Cavaliers are minimizing Allen's role, it would seem to communicate that they don't have that same level of belief in him. In such situations, organizations either lose that player's commitment as they dream about a new team where they could have a larger role, or they find a way to communicate they still have a high level of belief in that player.
The Cavaliers are hoping to follow that second path, and to that end head coach Kenny Atkinson spoke on Allen this week. Speaking to Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com, Atkinson admitted that Allen doesn't get enough praise -- from the media, yes, but even from the coaching staff. He looked the elephant in the room right in the eyes and acknowledged that Donovan Mitchell, Evan Mobley and Darius Garland are the higher-profile stars of the "Core 4".
Yet Atkinson still believes that Allen has a unique role to play on the team -- and that the Cavaliers can only reach their highest potential with Allen playing at his best. As he told Fedor, "when plays at a top level, we are really hard to beat."
Jarrett Allen is still bought in
To speak to the Allen side of things, he admitted to Fedor that he "used to feel underappreciated. But the appreciation comes from the people who matter the most - everyone in this locker room."
It's a magical thing to be a part of a winning team, and this Cavaliers group seems to have bonded -- playing multiple seasons together helps to grow those bonds, even as it can potentially strain them. The Cavs have been through tough playoff defeats, and now they are playing well enough to believe they can go further than they have before.
Allen will play a crucial role in that journey, and when he has a dominant game the Cavaliers are nearly unbeatable because of the talent around him. Yet he must also deal with reduced minutes, fewer touches and crunch times where he sits on the sidelines. If the Cavaliers start getting into more close games, Allen could see his minutes further shrunk.
Yet he may also be the catalyst to minimize such games as he drives the Cavaliers to continue blowing opponents out. The Cavs don't have the best center in the NBA but they certainly have the best 48-full-minutes of center play, and Allen is a crucial piece of that success.
Minimized, yes. Forgotten? Absolutely not.