For years now, the Cleveland Cavaliers have stood firm on its belief that the frontcourt pairing of Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen is the right combination to lead the team to a championship.
Koby Altman and his staff decided not to dangle Mobley in the pursuit of Giannis Antetokounmpo and Allen, while on a very tradeable contract, is now the Cavaliers’ longest tenured player.
And so, what does Cleveland have to show for it? That’s exactly right, nothing.
Not just that, but two traditional big starting combinations are losing their effectiveness within teams that win titles. In 2022, Kevon Looney started at center for the Golden State Warriors while Draymond Green operated in his classic hybrid forward role at the four. In 2023, Nikola Jokic dominated the paint while Aaron Gordon, another hybrid forward, started at power forward.
When the Boston Celtics won it all in 2024, Al Horford was the primary center and Jayson Tatum operated at the four in their small ball starting five. Lastly, in 2026, the New York Knicks worked in a similar fashion with Karl-Anthony Towns and OG Anunoby functioning as a very much non-traditional frontcourt.
The key exception here is the 2025 Oklahoma City Thunder, who started Chet Homgren and Isaiah Hartenstein in a pairing that the Cavaliers have been trying to replicate. However, there some key factors into why Cleveland can’t find the same success as Oklahoma City.
First, Mobley and Allen quite frankly just aren’t as good as Holmgren and Hartenstein. They’re not the same, but within their respective systems, the Thunder pairing have been far more successful. Which leads to the second factor, which is that Mark Daigneault and the Thunder ‘way’ is just a more efficient product. Oklahoma City has had a higher net rating than Cleveland for the past three years, meaning that simply, the Thunder are better coached and run a far cleaner scheme.
Oh, and they have Shai Gilgeous-Alexander too, maybe the best player in the whole league.
But anyway, while Oklahoma City is an irreplicable anomaly, the 2026 Knicks are not, and the Cavaliers should follow their blueprint.
New York mastered the one-big system
For years, Towns has been labeled as an extremely negative defender, and there’s some real truth to that. In the 2025 postseason, he recorded a 113.6 defensive rating, slightly worse than league average. He also played 26.3% of his playoff minutes alongside Mitchell Robinson, the team’s other big man.
However, in 2026, Towns’ defensive rating in the playoffs improved to 102.8, well above league average. It’s no coincidence that his percentage of minutes playing alongside Robinson dropped to just 4.9%.
The point is that firstly, perhaps Towns himself was never the complete problem. The problem instead was trying to utilize him in a jumbo lineup setting where he is constantly put out of position. Secondly, if Towns can improve as defender by playing as the sole big, then perhaps it’s a sign that every team will improve by going smaller on the defensive end.
Towns thrived next to Anunoby and Mikal Bridges, big wings who could help out on the interior but whose best places are out on the perimeter.
Offensively, too, the Knicks were wildly successful with Towns as the only big, posting a 122.1 offensive rating in his minutes without Robinson.
Cleveland needs to build from New York’s success
It should, without any shadow of a doubt, be stated that Towns, Robinson, Mobley and Allen are not the same players by any means. But, they can function in similar roles to the point where the Cavaliers should follow how the Knicks formulated their rotation.
In the 2026 playoffs, Mobley played 51.3% of his minutes with Allen, a stark difference from that of the New York bigs. In those minutes together, lineups with said pairing graded out slightly above average in their net rating. Allen’s minutes by himself boomed with a strong +9.7 net rating. However, Mobley was poor on his own, posting a -5.8.
As usual, though, it isn’t that simple. Mobley’s most played lineup without Allen included was alongside Dennis Schroder, Donovan Mitchell, Max Strus and Sam Merrill. In 49 total minutes, that lineup was a -28.6, an abysmal number. While those four guards/wings have offensive talent, they are a far cry from the defensive prowess of Anunoby and Bridges.
Although, Mobley’s next most played lineup sans Allen included James Harden, Mitchell, Merrill and Dean Wade. In that case, Wade is exactly the physical wing that pairs well with a solo big and the lineup thrived. It wasn’t perfect on the defensive end, but the fivesome recorded a +15.9 in 23 minutes, meaning that the blueprint on how to win with only a single big is right there.
So, it’s clear that the league is moving past multiple bigs roaming the floor at once. Now, the key for the Cavaliers, should they continue to move forward with both Mobley and Allen, is how they can maximize the pieces around pair to successfully stagger their minutes and increase each’s time without the other.
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