The Cleveland Cavaliers would be fools to trade Jarrett Allen for a late-pick

Yet another bad Cleveland Cavaliers X Jarrett Allen trade has popped up.

If you were able to land someone like Luka Doncic and all it cost you were Donovan Mitchell and Jarrett Allen, I’d make that trade so many times in the day that I’d break the eastern seaboard’s power grid. It’d be like 2003 up in here all over again. Yet, save for someone like Doncic, Nikola Jokic, or Giannis Antetokounmpo, there isn’t a reason to trade Allen. Why would the Cleveland Cavaliers trade an All-Star for a middling player?

Most of the deals being pitched online by bloggers seem to center around Allen going to teams like Dallas or Portland for a bench player and a late first-round pick. It’s never a good trade for the Cavs. For instance, NBA Analysis has the Cavs sending Allen to Boston for Grant Williams and a 2025 First-Round pick.

Keep in mind that Williams is a player that is about to be run out of Boston for his pretty poor performance in the Eastern Conference Finals, but the blog side calls him an “elite floor spacer”. A 39% three-point shooter is not “elite”. But then again, most of these blog sites aren’t worried about the Cavs getting back good value. They just want to justify bad trades for their team.

The Cleveland Cavaliers are not giving up Jarrett Allen for bench players and bad picks

The Cleveland Cavaliers didn’t want to trade Caris LeVert, at best a fifth starter on a solid team, because they didn’t get a deal they liked. Yet, these people actually think that the Cavs would somehow trade Allen away for a glorified bench player and a first-round pick that will likely be in the last 10 spots in the first round.

Why?

Allen is an All-Star. He’s one of the best defending bigs in the league and the Cavs aren’t trading him for spare parts and late-round picks.