In a recent podcast interview, NBA veteran Charles Barkley said he’s unhappy with Cleveland Cavaliers big man Jarrett Allen’s performance each season. It seems Barkley believes Allen is capable of far more than what he has given.
Barkley appears to believe that Allen, a one-time All-Star, should have averaged 20 points per game last season, but the 26-year-old is still coming off of what was maybe his best scoring season in the NBA to date.
The center played 77 games with Cleveland during the 2023–24 regular season, averaging a career-high 16.5 points per game. The speed at which he made baskets was possibly even more remarkable than the quantity of points he scored.
Allen made 10.6 field goals a game, converting an amazing 63.4 percent of his shots from the field. To put his field goal percentage in context, the only three eligible players who shot a better % from the field the previous season were Rudy Gobert, Ivica Zubac, and Daniel Gafford.
However, Allen could need to increase the variety of points he can score if he hopes to play a larger offensive role in the future. In the 2023–24 regular season, a staggering 478 of his 819 field goal attempts were made right at the rim. Furthermore, he only attempted 24 shots from a distance of 16 or more feet from the hoop, and just four of those attempts found the back of the net.
Furthermore, Allen hasn’t demonstrated that he is capable of continuously coming up with an offensive play on his own without assistance from a partner. 82.3 percent of Allen’s baskets during the regular season were via assists; in the 2024 NBA Playoffs, that percentage increased to 96.0 percent.
It could be argued, though, that Allen’s primary goal going into the upcoming season ought to be maintaining his health rather than securing a bigger offensive role. Due to a rib injury, he missed a significant portion of the Cavaliers’ playoff run last season, which ended in the second round. He also played zero minutes in the team’s second-round series against the Boston Celtics.
Overall, the big man contributes significantly to the Cavaliers on both sides of the court even though he may not be someone people can count on to score 20 points and pull down 10 rebounds every night.