It is all about the Afro. Jarrett Allen is staying in his adopted home with the wine and gold in Cleveland.
The Cleveland Cavaliers reached a three-year, $91 million maximum extension with their center on Wednesday afternoon, according to ESPN’s senior NBA insider Adrian Wojnarowski. The deal will now give Allen the ultimate security, more than $130 million in guaranteed money over the next five years.
Allen is coming off his most successful season in the NBA while embracing the role as one of the leaders along with Donovan Mitchell, helping the Cavaliers make their deepest playoff run since the LeBron James era. Allen went right to work, averaging a career-high 16.5 points and 10.5 rebounds last season, his third full campaign with the franchise. The 26-year-old put up a career-high 42 double-doubles on the season, the most by a Cavalier since James (52) in the 2017-18 season, when they made the finals.
Though he was a dominant force early in the first round of the playoffs against the Orlando Magic, Allen sustained a fractured rib late in that series that kept him out of commission for the final three games against Orlando and the entire conference semifinal series versus the Boston Celtics. The Cavaliers fell in the Eastern Conference semifinals to the Celtics in five games. The 6-foot-9 Allen had been extremely durable, appearing in 81 consecutive games last season prior to the rib injury.
Along with the Milwaukee Bucks two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo, Allen was one of two players to average 15 points on 60% from the field in 2023. For his career, Allen is one of only four players in the shot-clock era to average 15 points, 10 rebounds and 60% shooting in multiple seasons, according to ESPN Stats & Info. The others are Artis Gilmore, Rudy Gobert and Dwight Howard.
Embed from Getty ImagesAllen was the 22nd pick in the 2017 NBA draft out of the University of Texas by the Brooklyn Nets, where he played the first three-plus NBA seasons until a blockbuster four-team trade brought him to Cleveland in 2021.
The Cavaliers have had a busy offseason thus far resigning three of their key contributors to an extension this summer. Allen is the third, following Mitchell and forward Evan Mobley. Mitchell signed a three-year, $150.3 million max extension earlier this month, while Mobley signed a five-year, $224 million max rookie extension. With the three players now under contract in the immediate future, the Cavaliers are clearly depending on the three headed monster to keep the Cavaliers in championship contention among the strong top half of the Eastern Conference for years to come.
