It will be fair to say that the Cleveland Cavaliers have seen multiple players improve since the arrival of James Harden, and Jarrett Allen is close to the top of the list. Since the Cavaliers’ win over the Portland Trail Blazers in early February, when he scored 40 points, Allen has been an offensive phenomenon, averaging 21.4 points with eight double-doubles in nine games.
And well, it seems as if the turning point arrived in late January when Evan Mobley went down with a second calf strain, which led to head coach Kenny Atkinson asking him to anchor the paint.
“[Atkinson] came up to me and said, ‘You’re going to have to pick it up. You’re going to have to make up for the loss of rim protection, the loss of offensive ability.’ And I took it to heart. I went out there and honestly just started having fun and not really caring about the mistakes that I was going to make and just playing freely. I always try to say I’m the perfect soldier. You tell me to do something, I’m gonna blindly go do it, whether I believe it or not. And it’s just been working,” Allen said per the Akron Beacon Journal.
Early in the season, Allen’s signature touch around the rim, which yielded a 70 percent shooting clip last year, was severely hampered by a fractured left finger and a sprained right finger.
“I pride myself on the touch around the rim [and] last year shot 70%, [so I’m] getting back to who I was last year, being able to finish around the rim. But at the beginning of [this season], it was tough. I’m starting to transition back to who I was,” he explained.
The results have been there for all to see. Allen has played alongside James Harden seven times, putting up averages of 20.4 points and 11.3 rebounds on an absurd 76.7 percent shooting from the field. Of course, Harden was quick to praise his new teammate, claiming recently that Allen was better than he thought.
Cleveland is 6-1 since the bearded guard joined the starting lineup, pushing their overall record to 37-22 and tying them for the third seed in the Eastern Conference. While on paper his arrival was expected to make the Cavs bonafide contenders, it has also undoubtedly translated on the court.