The Denver Nuggets won the NBA Championship last season with exactly one poor shooter in the starting lineup, and even Aaron Gordon hit 34.7 percent of his 2.5 3-pointers per game. The year before, the Golden State Warriors had one non-shooter and one reluctant shooter in the starting lineup, but even then pulled Kevon Looney for Otto Porter Jr. (a stretch-4, essentially) during the NBA Finals.
The Milwaukee Bucks won the season before with a stretch-5 unlocking the spacing around their inside-dominant superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo. They beat the Phoenix Suns, who had four willing shooters around a post scorer in Deandre Ayton. When the Warriors won their most recent title they played a Boston Celtics team that started one non-shooter but frequently shifted into a 5-out look with Al Horford at center.
The Cavaliers are fighting against modern history
The modern NBA doesn't have a good example of a team thriving with two players who don't shoot at all from outside the arc. That's the template the Cleveland Cavaliers are trying to succeed with. It's possible that Evan Mobley develops an outside shot as his career goes on, but it's not a part of it at the moment; Mobley is just 2-for-10 from deep in 21 games, and 83 percent of his shots come in the paint.
Given that 93 percent of Jarrett Allen's shots come from the paint, the Cavs are starting from a place of weakness whenever they step onto the court on offense. The pairing is obviously incredible defensively, which is why the Cavaliers have won so much despite the lack of spacing, but at some point it may become a problem they can't paper over any longer.
If the Cavs reach that point, who could be interested in trading for Jarrett Allen? Center is the most difficult position to trade because teams can't (realistically) play two of them, and there are plenty of viable options available inexpensively in free agency each season. Allen is obviously an upgrade on players like Mason Plumlee, Drew Eubanks and Jock Landale, but how much of one?
The Cavs' trade market will be limited, but it only takes one team to be interested enough to make an offer. Knowing the trade landscape will help the Cavaliers know when to shop Allen and how to play interested teams off of one another.
Let's look at 4 teams that could trade for Jarrett Allen, starting with a team in their own division.
The Chicago Bulls could trade for Jarrett Allen
The Chicago Bulls need to reset their roster. They have a number of aging veteran players who fit together poorly enough that they've struggled just to make the Play-In Tournament over the past few seasons together. This year is wirse, with the Bulls 9-14 and in 12th place in the Eastern Conference.
As they look to reset and get younger, the idea of having a true rim protector for the first time in years should be appealing. Nikola Vucevic is a strong candidate to be traded, and Allen would make sense as a younger player to build around defensively. That could mean the Cavs move Allen in pursuit of one of the Bulls' veterans, whether that is Vucevic or DeMar DeRozan or even Alex Caruso, or perhaps it's in a multi-team deal as the Bulls offload a player elsewhere.
The Washington Wizards could trade for Jarrett Allen
The Washington Wizards are a year ahead of the Bulls, having offloaded key veterans in Bradley Beal and Kristaps Porzingis last summer. This year has gone about as poorly as you would have expected, with Jordan Poole and Kyle Kuzma taking and missing a massive volume of shots. Luckily for the Wizards, that's exactly the results that they want, with the team 3-18 over the first quarter of the season.
They have a reasonable center in Daniel Gafford, but he is not changing their culture defensively. Jarrett Allen would come in and give them an identity on that end of the court to build around. The Cavs could target Kuzma as an offensive weapon to add to the arsenal, or more likely they could build out their depth with players like Tyus Jones, Delon Wright, Corey Kispert and Gafford as players to inquire about.
The New Orleans Pelicans could trade for Jarrett Allen
A healthy Zion Williamson changes the ceiling for the New Orleans Pelicans, and they made it to the semifinals of the In-Season Tournament based on a potent offensive attack featuring Zion, Brandon Ingram and CJ McCollum. Defensively, they have a plethora of perimeter weapons, from Herb Jones and Jose Alvarado to Trey Murphy III and Dyson Daniels. What they don't have is rim protection.
The Pelicans have been linked to Jarrett Allen before, and he could be the difference-maker defensively for a Pelicans team that ranks just 15th in defensive rating despite their elite perimeter defenders. Jonas Valanciunas is a beast on the glass but otherwise isn't scaring teams defensively. Allen could step in and provide the paint protector this team has lacked, and the resulting defensive floor would set the Pelicans up to be contenders as their offensive stars step up.
The Charlotte Hornets could trade for Jarrett Allen
The Charlotte Hornets drafted center Mark Williams in the middle of the first round two years ago, and he is having a solid sophomore season, averaging about 13 points and 10 rebounds per game. The problem is that despite his size he doesn't seem to be making much of an impact defensively, and the Hornets accordingly have the worst defense in the league.
Allen is an obvious choice for them to upgrade their defense, especially if they view next year as their time to move back up the standings and compete for a playoff berth. LaMelo Ball is a special offensive player who will need rim protection behind him given his lack of pressure on the perimeter when he is defending.
The Hornets hit the sweet spot of a team that has shooting at all four positions around their center, are young enough to value Allen's relative youth, but aren't in the midst of a rebuild so will be open to providing real assets in a deal for a rim protector of Allen's caliber. That could mean trading a player like P.J. Washington back to the Cavaliers, or it could mean some draft capital down the line.
The list of suitors for Jarrett Allen is not exceptionally long; teams like the Houston Rockets, Dallas Mavericks and Brooklyn Nets finding their centers of the future further decreases the list of suitors. But they are out there, and the Cavs may need to reach out sometime soon.