Could Cavaliers trade Jarrett Allen this offseason?
It could be a chaotic offseason for the Cleveland Cavaliers, who finished as the No. 4 seed in the Eastern Conference before being eliminated by the Boston Celtics in five games in the East semifinals.
At least one of Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland likely won’t be a part of the team next season, but it may not stop there.
According to NBA insider Marc Stein, there could be interest for Cavaliers big Jarrett Allen, who’s coming off a career season despite an unfortunate end.
“Allen continues to have numerous admirers in rival front offices despite the whispers of frustration circulating in Cleveland surrounding Allen’s apparent reluctance to take a pain-killing injection to address a rib injury that sidelined him for the Cavaliers’ final eight playoff games,” his report read via his substack.
As Stein mentioned, Allen missed the team’s final eight playoff games due to a rib injury, including all five games against Boston, who was missing Kristaps Porzingis due to a calf injury.
Allen, who turned 26-years-old in April, averaged a career-high 16.5 points, 10.5 rebounds and 1.1 blocks across 77 games this season, shooting 63.4 percent from the floor and 74.2 percent from the charity stripe.
There’s more to contextualize, but the 2023-24 season was the most uneven that the pairing has had together over the last three seasons.
Mobley missed 32 games with knee and ankle injuries, but the duo logged just a 1.5 NET Rating in 768 minutes on the floor together this season; when Allen was on the floor without Mobley, the team’s NET Rating skyrocketed to 6.1, while the inverse was 0.4, per PBP Stats. Conceptually, their two-big lineup isn’t the cleanest fit, despite both being talented in different ways.
Allen, who was acquired midseason in the James Harden trade to the Nets in 2020-21, is entering the fourth year of a five-year, $100 million extension he signed ahead of the 2021-22 season.
Instead of the standard eight percent raises, his cap hits are a flat $20 million over the five-year duration, per Spotrac. Thus, his cap hit will be 14.2 and 12.9 percent of the projected salary cap for the next two seasons, respectively, which makes it more than attractive from a team perspective.
Should Mitchell accept the four-year, $208 million extension he’s eligible for, as well as Mobley accepting the rookie max he’s eligible for, it’s possible that Allen’s time in Cleveland could be coming to an end sooner rather than later.
The NBA is getting bigger and plenty are looking for a big who can offer functional size. Allen isn’t a floor spacer, but he’s a very good shot blocker who still has juice as a vertical spacer.
If he’s on the move, where do you think he should land? Let us know in the comments!
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