The Cleveland Cavaliers have only had their new core four players of James Harden, Donovan Mitchell, Evan Mobley, and Jarrett Allen all together on the court for three games this season. Friday’s contest against the Miami Heat could be a fourth.
Allen, who has missed the team’s last 10 games with a knee injury, is questionable for Friday’s rematch.
The Cavs made a bold decision at the deadline by sending out a much-younger Darius Garland for Harden. That move was done with the hopes that they would
have a better chance of winning a title in the next few seasons, even if it cost them some long-term security. One of the issues of doing a move that drastic is that there isn’t much time to see how it all works.
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Allen was the biggest beneficiary of the Harden acquisition. He displayed an instant chemistry with Harden, which led to him playing the best basketball of his career in February. This resulted in team success as well, as the Cavs registered a +8.5 net rating (87th percentile) and 124.2 offensive rating (96th percentile) in the 256 minutes Harden and Allen shared the floor.
Unsurprisingly, those numbers improve when Mitchell joins the grouping. In the 120 minutes they’ve played together, the Cavs have outscored opponents by 16.9 points per 100 possessions (98th percentile) with an incredible 133.3 offensive rating (100th percentile).
We know those groupings work. We don’t know for sure how it works when you throw Mobley into that mix. The Cavs have only played 35 minutes with all four on the court together. Those lineups have done incredibly well — +36.7 net rating — but it isn’t close to being a large enough sample size to draw any conclusions from. Figuring out how that lineup looks is critical to team success in the postseason.
Additionally, the Cavs have struggled defensively without Allen. That’s been seen in recent games as they’ve consistently over-helped to stop dribble penetration, which has led to giving up open threes. Having an additional rim protector should theoretically help with some of those issues.
This new group would ideally like more time to gel before playoff basketball starts. There’s only nine games left in the regular season. At the very least, Friday could be an opportunity to see how this looks when at least the team’s top players are fully healthy.
On the season, Allen is averaging 15.3 points and 8.5 rebounds per game on 63.6% shooting.
The Cavs will still be without Jaylon Tyson (toe), Craig Porter Jr. (groin), and Dean Wade (ankle) on Friday. Miami could be missing Jaime Jaquez Jr., who’s questionable for Friday’s game with an ankle sprain.
