Jarrett Allen heads into 2026-27 in a familiar spot: anchoring the middle for Cleveland and still giving the Cavs the kind of dependable two-way play that has made him such a fixture since arriving in the 2020-21 season. He’s entering his seventh year with the team, still only 28, and the range of outcomes for what comes next is wider than it might look on the surface.
One path is the straightforward one. Allen keeps doing what he’s done for years - finishing efficiently, protecting the rim, and holding down the paint - while nudging his scoring even higher than it was in 2025-26.
He put up 15.4 points per game last season, not far from his career high, and his 8.5 rebounds per game were a bit below his usual level. With Peyton Watson joining the starting five and giving Cleveland more size, Allen could have a little more help behind him defensively and a little more energy to spend on offense.
In that version of the season, he remains a top-12 center and keeps doing the steady work that has defined his time in Cleveland.
There’s also a more difficult route. Allen has spent 5.5 years giving the team what it needs, but the fit could change if the new personnel groups lead to different lineup choices.
The biggest concern is touches, or more accurately, the lack of them. When Allen scored 20 or more points last season, the Cavs went 11-2, but he simply did not get there often enough.
If he goes long stretches without the ball, regression becomes a real possibility.
That’s where the lineup math starts to matter. Watson can play power forward, and Mario Hezonja, listed at 6'9, 260-lbs, can handle some minutes there too.
If Cleveland wants to get faster or go five-out more often, the front office may decide that more Evan Mobley at center is the cleaner answer. That would put Allen’s minutes in a tougher spot.
And then there’s the most dramatic possibility: a trade. Allen has been in rumors for what feels like two years, and with three years and $90 million left on his contract, the Cavs could decide to sell high if they believe Mobley is better suited to play center full-time. The Allen-Mobley pairing has already proven elite, but that may not be enough to keep the front office from exploring a different direction.
For now, though, Allen opens the year as Cleveland’s starting center again. He’s still the guy in the middle, still the one waving to the crowd with Sir CC before home games, and still the player the Cavs are counting on as the season begins.
In Other News...
Evan Mobley Debate Just Got Uncomfortable For The Cavs
A speculative Evan Mobley-for-Matas Buzelis trade idea has surfaced in the kind of offseason chatter that always lands a little harder when it involves a cornerstone player. For Cleveland, the premise is uncomfortable because Mobley remains one of the leagues most valuable young defenders, the sort of player who changes the floor on that end even when the offense is still evolving. For Chicago, Buzelis is the more theoretical piece, a young forward whose appeal rests on the belief that his scoring upside can keep growing into something bigger.
The debate gets interesting because both sides can talk themselves into the basketball fit, even if the idea lives entirely in hypotheticals. Cleveland would be weighing whether to move off a proven defensive anchor for a higher-variance offensive swing, while the Bulls would be asking how much patience they have for Buzelis to reach his ceiling. Nothing about this points to real negotiations, but it is the kind of thought experiment that exposes just how delicate the balance is when a team starts wondering whether its best long-term answer is already in hand. [Read more 🡒]
Three Young Cavs Suddenly Have A Real Shot To Matter
Craig Porter Jr., Tyrese Proctor and reserve forward Jaylon Tyson are all at a stage where the Cavaliers can still reasonably imagine more coming from them. For a team trying to keep building around established pieces, young depth matters, and Cleveland has a few players who fit the kind of long-view conversation coaches and front offices like to have in-season. The appeal here is not just age, but the chance that each can sharpen a specific part of his game enough to stop being a developmental name and start becoming a dependable rotation option.
Proctor has already drawn some attention from Kenny Atkinson, who recently pointed to the guards physical development as part of his progress, and that only adds to the sense that his timeline is moving in the right direction. Porter and Tyson, meanwhile, are still in the category of players whose next step could come from simple but important growth, including greater shooting aggression and more consistency. None of it is finished, but for Cleveland, the possibility that a few young players might meaningfully matter by 2026-27 is the kind of internal upside that can shape a roster more than any outside rumor. [Read more 🡒]
LeBrons Latest Health Concern Changes Clevelands Biggest What-If
LeBron James latest health update has added another layer to the long-running conversation about what might have been in Cleveland. After leaving for Philadelphia for what is expected to be the final two seasons of his career, James is now dealing with chronic arthritis in his left foot and lower-back issues, according to an ESPN report. It is the kind of news that resonates far beyond his current team, because for Cavaliers fans it brings back the familiar mix of admiration and regret that has followed every twist in his late-career arc.
James reportedly monitors the problems daily as part of his training, and last season he missed about a month because of sciatica. For Philadelphia, the concern is obvious: availability always shapes everything around a player at this stage, from rhythm to lineup stability to the larger ceiling of the season. For Cleveland, it only sharpens the old question of how different things might have looked if this version of James, with all the wear and tear that comes with the miles, had been part of the present instead of another teams future. [Read more 🡒]