Cavs: Jarrett Allen tops seasonal debut of the Top 3 Best/Worst from the Grizzlies game

Jarrett Allen was fantastic in Cav’s debut against the Grizzlies.

The Cavs sure didn’t rebound well against the Grizzlies. Steven Adams led all players with 14 rebounds, with the Cavs having two, Lauri Markkanen and Evan Mobley, who had nine apiece. The guy everyone thought would be rebounding the game away was Jarrett Allen, who settled with only four.

He was a clear mover and shaker all day offensively, however, as he did his absolute best to try to keep up with the Grizz and their high-powered offense. Defensively the Cavs had few answers, and in a move that some are still stunned by, their “best” defensive player, Isaac Okoro, started the game off the bench while Markkanen started at the small forward position.

Like last year, the number next to the corresponding players is how many “points” I’ll award them. So players who have bad games will want to get left off or the lowest number, while the players who did better will want the higher number. Not rocket science.

Which Cavs players fared the best and worst against the Grizzlies?

The bottom three performers were

1. Darius Garland
2. Kevin Love
3. Lauri Markkanen

For Darius Garland, it’s obvious, his shooting landed him at the first spot. He shot just 30% from the floor and 30% from three-point. It’s only week one, so we’re not thinking these will be seasonal averages but seeing how well Ricky Rubio played, it’s hard to not think there can be a controversy at some point this season.

Kevin Love played 17 minutes and shot like hot garbage. While Garland shot badly and is far more important to the team, Garland also played solid defense all night, netting him a net +/- of zero, while Love got roasted defensively. To his credit, Love had four assists, fourth on the team for the night.

Lastly, Lauri Markkanen gets the most negative attention due to his awful shooting performance. He actually played solid defense but his 4-14 shooting from the floor and 2-7 from three was just too egregious to pass up.

The top three performers were

1. Cedi Osman
2. Evan Mobley
3. Jarrett Allen

The first man up gets one point for his seasonal standings and that’s Cedi Osman. Osman missed just one shot all game, going 5-6 from the floor and 3-3 from three-point to finish with 15 points and two rebounds. He can get more active rebounding and could certainly play better defense but this is a great return to form for Osman.

Getting two points to their season tally is the rookie Evan Mobley. Mobley nearly had a triple-double in his debut, dropping 17 points, 9 rebounds and six assists. Defensively he got roasted a lot but so did most of the Cavs, so we’re not going to fault him too much.

Lastly, getting the three points and topping out our list was Jarrett Allen. While he only had four rebounds on the night, he went 11-11 from the floor and finished the game with 25 points, four rebounds, three steals, and three blocks.

Honorable Mentions: Isaac Okoro led the Cavs in +/- with a +8, and Ricky Rubio made his Cavs debut with a double-double.