Jarrett Allen’s PLAYMAKING has made ‘MASSIVE JUMP’ for Cleveland Cavaliers | Yahoo Sports
Jared Allen felt like a guy whose you know reputation got muddied a little bit by that first round Series against the Knicks um you know in part by virtue of him being like self-aware enough and open and vulnerable enough to say like yeah it felt like the lights were kind
Of bright for me I maybe didn’t play my best basketball like acknowledging what everybody else saw and being you know vocal about it um open the door for people to be like yeah and that guy’s soft get get rid of him and then you know come to find out actually uh
All-Star caliber Center not soft uh like 18 and 12 on 65% shooting passing the ball really well super great perimeter uh you know interior Defender someone you can funnel everybody at oh that guy’s actually really good and what he has shown the last you know month and a
Half or so is maybe in a way where if you thought he was somebody you might need to move away from maybe instead somebody you need to make sure you keep around for as long as possible yeah and I I’ve been thrilled by it um it is
Funny that people latched on to that and obviously you know whenever a quot becomes a meme it’s going to get distributed pretty widely and it’s funny because uh darus Garland and Donovan Mitchell both said basically the same thing in various interviews but you know Allen’s going to be the one I I think
This is natural with fans of a team blame will be put on whoever they feel is most kind of dispensable whether that’s a coach whether that’s you know a role player uh especially in this kind a modern age where people latch on to stars and they will root for stars above
Even teams we must absolve them of blame at all times and that first round series like the blame is shared across the team like I don’t think anybody played particularly well it was just kind of a across theboard uh failure from them and I like the fact that Jared Allen was
Willing to say hey like this is what it was for me like I’m I’m not going to sit here and be like no I was totally confident I was playing my best basketball and that’s what that is no we we saw what was happening there and when
We had the chance to talk to him at media day he basically talked about hey I looked at where we had shortcomings within our offense I looked at hey we kind of struggle a little bit against drop coverage um they were anticipating uh moyy and Allen were going to you know
Look to pass in those situations so I’m going to become better from mid-range I worked on my game as a passer I’ve I’ve done all these little small Nuance things that can make a difference in the long run and we’ve seen it his playmaking has made a massive jump this
Year the fact that you can kind of use him as that short roll Hub that’s really important because kind of the thesis of this Cav’s um construction is all right we have a core 4 that works really well together when they’re on the court and we are going to stagger the guards in
Big so that you have 48 minutes of at least one Elite rim protector and one Elite playmaker at all times and if you can have Jared Allen kind of replicate that short role playm that Evan Mo does you have continuity within your system so I think him stepping up the way he
Has and doing so with Donovan Mitchell that’s the kind of growth that I think can pay long-term dividends for this team and you’re the the the playmaking component I think is something that maybe a lot of people didn’t expect to be to grow in in Jared Allen’s game but
You’re absolutely right you know a career-high assist number and like by a significant number the jump in assist numbers um you know both the per game the per minute the you know Assist percentage all those sorts of things the indicators of how often you’re you know
Get you know delivering the ball to a teammate like all through the roof for him and his stability in that role like he’s G to be a really good pick and roll dive man we already you know that that’s baked into who he is as a player but
Yeah like if you’ve got that end he’s more comfortable making those reads making those decisions when he’s slipped the ball in space after you know the defense traps the ball out of hand or whatever and he’s also like a 50% shooter on floaters now like he’s he’s legitimately good there I think
Something like 12 for 23 or something from mid-range like further out in the mid-range two like this is it’s not you know I don’t imagine you’re going to want to build the whole offense out of Jared Allen pick and pop mid-range jumpers but it’s nice to know that
That’s a club you’ve got in the bag if if you need it
Yahoo Sports NBA writer Dan Devine is joined by Justin Rowan of The Chase Down Podcast to discuss the Cleveland Cavalier’s recent run and how Jarrett Allen has stepped up for the team as a playmaker.
Watch the full conversation here ► https://youtu.be/8CxCjVKPsls
Be sure to subscribe to “Devine Intervention” – part of the “Ball Don’t Lie” podcast – on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen.
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