The Cleveland Cavaliers were eliminated from the playoffs by the Indiana Pacers in Game 5. This marks a third consecutive early exit from the playoffs in the Donovan Mitchell era. This loss felt especially painful given the expectations entering the playoffs after the Cavs had their second-best regular season of all time, finishing with a 64-18 record and a +9.8 net-rating.
Some of the loss could certainly be chalked up to bad injury luck, as multiple key rotation players were banged up and missed time throughout the series, but it is also clear that some things need to change if this team wants to actually contend for a championship. The regular season and playoffs are two different beasts, and the Cavs need to focus on players who can get them over the hump in the postesason.
That could be bad news for Jarrett Allen.
Jarrett Allen Could Be on Thin Ice for Cavs This Offseason
Allen flat out kills your spacing as an offense in the playoffs, as he has no jumpshot at all. Unless you are an elite rebounder or defender, it is tough to justify getting playoff minutes as a center that can't space the floor. Allen has had two consecutive years of career block rate numbers, at 1.7% and then 1.6% this season, after starting his career with 7 consecutive seasons above 2.0%.
Allen made sense for a few years, providing some size next Evan Mobley, but Mobley has put on a lot of muscle and shown that he can rebound at a high level. Mobley averaged 9.8 rebounds per game to Allen's 7 rebounds per game in this Pacers series. Mobley has also shown he can reliably space the floor as he shot 38% last season and 37% from three this season. That carried itself into the playoffs as Mobley shot 14/30 (47%) on threes.
Mobley was dominant in the playoffs, shooting an insane 67.4% effective field goal percentage (94th percentile). Evan showed that he is ready to take the next step to be a true superstar this postseason. He is the big the Cavs need to build around moving forward.
The Cavs would be wise to shift Mobley to the 5 and to begin shopping Jarrett Allen on the trade market. They need to upgrade their defense and spacing on the wings next to Donovan Mitchell and Evan Mobley. Allen's contract isn't awful, as he is making just $20 million next season, so there should be some teams interested in him. Allen is the "championship starts after you" player on this team so the Cavs must get off of him this offseason.