CLEVELAND, Ohio — The Cavs face a fascinating paradox when it comes to center Jarrett Allen. Is he the heart and soul of the team as guard Darius Garland has claimed? Or is he, as Wine and Gold Talk podcast host Chris Fedor suggested, the “most expendable” member of the Cavs’ Core Four?
“There are people inside the organization that believe the turnaround of this franchise actually started with Jarrett,” Fedor revealed. “Not when they drafted Evan Mobley, not when they traded for for Donovan Mitchell, not when Darius Garland finally became an All Star. It’s when they traded for Jarrett and they had a clear identity at both ends of the floor and he was integral to that identity.”
This high organizational regard is backed by compelling evidence. As Sands pointed out, “The Cavs are 7- 1 when Jared Allen scores at least 16 points, and they’re 6-0 when he takes 10 or more shots.”
These numbers suggest that when Allen is more involved offensively, Cleveland is nearly unbeatable.
On-court impact metrics further support Allen’s importance.
“With him on the floor, they outscore opponents by 5.1 points per 100 possessions. With him off the floor, that drops to 1.2,” Fedor noted, highlighting the significant differential in team performance with and without their center.
However, the podcast also addressed the counterargument that positions Allen as potentially the most tradeable of Cleveland’s core stars.
Fedor explained this perspective bluntly: “I have a hard time saying the heart and soul because I think if you talk about the core four and you talk about the future of this basketball team and all of the salary cap ramifications, he’s probably the ‘most expendable,’ one, because of his age, two, because of his contract, and three, because one of the most important players in this organization is eventually going to occupy that position full time.”
That last point refers to Evan Mobley, whose natural position many believe is center rather than power forward. This creates a potential long-term redundancy that complicates Allen’s future with the team.
What makes this situation particularly intriguing is how it reflects a broader philosophical question about the Cavaliers’ offensive identity.
According to Fedor, “There are people inside this organization that believe the best version of the Cavs offensively is when they run things through their bigs.”
This approach was evident in Cleveland’s recent win against San Antonio, where, even facing defensive star Victor Wembanyama, the Cavs deliberately fed their big men.
The podcast discussion highlighted how Kenny Atkinson seems to be gravitating toward this big-centric approach, with Fedor quoting Atkinson: “I know Donovan can get 30 and 35, I know Darius can get 30 and 35, but they have to make their teammates better.”
As the Cavaliers navigate a season that has fallen short of expectations so far, the Allen paradox represents their broader identity crisis: Do they build around their current core, or is a significant shakeup inevitable if they don’t reach at least the Eastern Conference Finals?
Here’s the podcast for this week: