For the Cleveland Cavaliers to trade Jarrett Allen, they need a trade partner.
An obvious statement, but one that cannot be assumed. Cavaliers fans love to shout at the front office to move on from Jarrett Allen, a surefire solution to anything ailing the team. Break up the double-bigs, flip Allen for a wing, and let Evan Mobley settle in as the starting center. Bada bing, baba boom.
Who will trade for Allen? On the one hand, he is a solid two-way center on a reasonable contract and centers are increasingly coveted around the league. On the other hand, many teams have their center of the future already in place.
Who will trade for Jarrett Allen?
The obvious pick: the Utah Jazz.
Utah is the obvious trade partner for Jarrett Allen
When looking aorund the league for potential trade partners, no team checks all of the boxes quite so much as the Utah Jazz.
For starters, they have a massive hole at starting center after trading away Walker Kessler this past summer. The Los Angeles Lakers offered Kessler too great a contract, and the Jazz too great a trade package, for Utah to refuse. In the short term, however, they are without a starting-level center.
They will go into the season starting Jusuf Nurkic, who is a fine stopgap but clearly not to the level of someone like Kessler or Allen. Beside him in the frontcourt, Utah will trot out former Defensive Player of the Year Jaren Jackson Jr., and former All-Star forward (and former Cleveland Cavalier) Lauri Markkanen. Nurkic is clearly not like the others.
Utah is also a team on the rise, with growing expectations on how they will perform as a team this year and moving forward. With rising expectations comes the pressure to put together the best possible team.
The Jazz are also flush with assets, both young players and future draft picks. That puts them in position to make an offer for Allen that makes sense for both sides. It doesn't make sense for the Jazz to pay more for Allen than they got for Kessler, a player around the same level as Allen. They can certainly offer some things of value, however.
Building a Jarrett Allen trade
What would a Jarrett Allen trade look like coming from the Utah Jazz? The assumption is that Utah would not be willing to move on from either of their All-Star frontcourt players, nor their young backcourt duo of Keyonte George and No. 2 pick Darryn Peterson.
That means that a trade almost has to be built around one or both of two players: Nurkic, who makes $11.5 million this season and $10.5 million next year; and Josh Green, on an expiring $14.6 million deal.
The player the Cavaliers would likely love to ask for would be last year's No. 5 overall pick, 6'9" forward Ace Bailey. Moving on from Bailey this early may seem like a bridge too far, but the Jazz have essentially replaced him in their plans by trading for Jackson (thus moving Markkanen to the 3) and drafting Peterson to start at the 2. They may love the offensive upside of Bailey, but his value will likely go down if he is a perennial bench player.
The only other option would be for the Jazz to attach multiple draft picks to the deal, setting the Cavaliers up to either expand the deal or make a trade later on. Would Nurkic, Green and two firsts entice Cleveland?
The Cavaliers need to determine what needs their team has in surrounding Donovan Mitchell and Evan Mobley with the best possible talent, and then search out a trade that meets those needs. They are a win-now team, so trading Allen for future unknown assets is likely not in the cards.
A trade, however, very likely starts with the Utah Jazz.
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