As we discussed in a piece earlier this week, it's a very real possibility that the Cleveland Cavaliers trade Jarrett Allen.
It's not that they are desperately trying to move on from their star center, but more so he is the logical player to trade if they don't win a title this season. If one of the best regular seasons in franchise history merely turns into a second round loss, the front office will consider significant changes, and Allen could be at the center of them.
What would a Jarrett Allen trade look like? Let's look at one potential construction and see whether it would make sense for Cleveland to pull the trigger.
Details of a Jarrett Allen trade
The Cleveland Cavaliers won't trade Jarrett Allen, an All-Star caliber player with years of solid play for the franchise, just to try something slightly different. If they do trade Allen, it will be for a player at a different position that allows them to build their frontcourt in a very different way.
That almost certainly means finding a forward with real size to play beside Evan Mobley. Such a player needs the versatility to defend multiple positions, and ideally could switch onto opposing guards to allow Donovan Mitchell or Darius Garland to slide onto a less threatening player.
Finding such a player is only the first step; that team also needs to have interest in Allen. The Dallas Mavericks may be perpetually collecting centers but at some point they have to stop. The Portland Trail Blazers have some intriguing defensive forwards but no need for a center.
One potential trade partner is a team that was rumored to be interested in Allen last offseason and has not addressed the position with a long-term solution. The New Orleans Pelicans could both have interest in Allen and have a player to build a return package around.
Here is what such a deal could look like:
Herb Jones is one of the league's best perimeter defender, someone with real size at 6'8 with a massive wingspan, but also has the agility to stay in front of faster players. In a down season playing on an injury-riddled team with no defensive support at center, Jones still had positive defensive metrics.
He and Kelly Olynyk make close to $25 million next season, while Allen makes $20 million in the final year of his contract before a new extension kicks in. This deal would likely need another salary added in, be that Isaac Okoro or someone else. We'll just evaluate the core of the deal here.
The Pelicans get their long-term center to defend the rim alongside Zion Williamson and Trey Murphy III, a player in Allen who rarely misses time (what a welcome change for New Orleans). It's painful to move Jones, a player they identified and developed, but they are more likely to add a perimeter player near the top of the lottery and need a solution at center.
What about the Cavaliers - is this the right move for them?
Grade the Trade
In this scenario, the Cavaliers have fallen short of their goals in the playoffs. Even so, Cleveland is going to have more than 60 wins this season with Allen starting at center next to Evan Mobley. They know they can be extremely successful with Allen. That raises the bar for a trade to be convincing enough.
Getting an elite perimeter defender like Herb Jones is certainly a start. He can inhale opposing players, and he isn't vulnerable to speed or strength. The Cavs need a solution to Jayson Tatum and Jones can be that solution, while also giving them more options on the likes of Tyrese Haliburton or Cade Cunningham.
An improved offensive player, Jones is enough of a shooter that he isn't completely ignored on the perimeter. Adding Kelly Olynyk to the deal gives the Cavs a potential partner for Jones in the frontcourt, as Olynyk's shooting can help make up for Jones' shaky shooting.
With that being said, Jones is coming off of an injury-riddled season and hasn't been consistently healthy thus far in his career. He is also already 26 years old and will turn 27 before next season begins. He will soon start gliding out of his prime, and his skill levle may not be high enough to counteract it.
Olynyk's shooting would give the Cavs an element they have lacked over the past few seasons, but he has overall been a terrible player this season, a defensive sieve and inefficient finisher. He turns 34 next month and may be on the outs as an NBA player; if so, his $12 million contract next season would be essentially dead weight. As a likely second apron team, the Cavaliers cannot afford dead weight deals.
The first-round pick helps to mitigate the cost, tipping the scales more toward fair, but it doesn't get quite far enough. If Olynyk were 5 years younger and Jones was a bit more consistent as a shooter, this might be worth doing. As it is, the uncertainty is too great, and the downside too steep, and the Cavaliers should likely pass.
Grade: B-