Cleveland Cavaliers center Jarrett Allen has looked like a superstar center ever since James Harden arrived, but that all disappeared on Sunday.
Allen took just six field goal attempts against the Oklahoma City Thunder, as noted by ESPN's Tim MacMahon, and Cavs fans are suddenly terrified that Allen's worst habit has returned: his tendency to stop being aggressive on offense.
Jarrett Allen's offensive aggression has disappeared again for Cavaliers
It's almost as if Allen crawled back into his shell offensively once Evan Mobley returned to the lineup. That's a worrisome development for the Harden era Cavs, who looked like an NBA Finals team without Mobley.
But hold on, is this a Mobley problem, an Allen problem, or something else entirely?
MacMahon credited the Thunder's pair of savvy big men, Chet Holmgren and Isaiah Hartenstein, for shutting down Allen's production on Sunday.
In responding to MacMahon, ESPN's Brian Windhorst made Cavs fans shudder when he reminded everyone that Allen has a history of "turning into a wallflower in high-leverage situations."
Windhorst did admit that Wallflower Allen has been nowhere to be found before the OKC game, as Harden's continual lobs to the big man have forced him into action and driven up his numbers.
Maybe Cavs fans can relax knowing that Sunday was a unique situation against the best defensive team in the NBA. Just because the Thunder were able to delete the Harden-Allen experience doesn't mean that anyone else will have similar luck.
Still, this is something to watch moving forward, especially if Allen fails to replicate any semblance of what we saw during the first few Harden games.
The worst-case scenario for Cleveland would be the emergence of evidence that Mobley's presence is messing up Allen's chemistry with Harden, as this would force Koby Altman and the front office into some difficult Allen discussions during the next transaction cycle.
Some of the hottest Mobley takes from Cavs fandom following the Thunder loss would even suggest that Cleveland should consider trading Mobley -- and not Allen -- this summer, but that's an entirely different can of worms to open.
For now, Cleveland needs to recapture the Harden-Allen magic and do so with Mobley doing his thing simultaneously.
Is that possible, or does the Allen-Mobley double-big situation clog up the lane too much for Harden's comfort level? The Thunder sure have a knack for making teams second-guess everything about their own success.