Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports
Cleveland Cavaliers big man Jarrett Allen revealed that he feels odd about the fact that DeMarre Carroll is now an assistant coach with the team after the two played alongside each other on the Brooklyn Nets several years ago.
Carroll decided to join Kenny Atkinson’s coaching staff in Cleveland after he spent the 2023-24 campaign as an assistant coach under Darvin Ham’s Los Angeles Lakers and 2022-23 season in an assistant role with the Milwaukee Bucks.
Allen and Carroll were teammates on the Nets for two seasons, from the 2017-18 season through the 2018-19 campaign. Ironically, Atkinson was the head coach of Brooklyn when Carroll and Allen played together, and the Nets qualified for the 2019 NBA Playoffs with him leading the team from the sidelines.
Carroll was in the latter stages of his NBA career by the time he played for the Nets, but he still carved out a productive stint in Brooklyn. He averaged double digits in scoring in both of his seasons with the squad and averaged a career-high 13.5 points per game in the 2017-18 regular season.
Conversely, Allen played with Carroll during his first two seasons in the NBA, so he wasn’t nearly as refined of a player as he is today, particularly on the offensive side of the ball. For comparison, Allen averaged 8.2 points per game as a rookie and averaged more than double that number in the 2023-24 regular season, as he put up 16.5 per contest.
Allen is fresh off maybe the best season of his NBA career — even if he was sidelined for much of the Cavaliers’ stint in the 2024 NBA Playoffs — and perhaps Carroll’s presence will help the 26-year-old take another step forward as a player in the upcoming 2024-25 season.
If Allen can continue to expand his offensive repertoire and block shots with the frequency he did earlier on in his pro tenure, that would bode well for a Cavaliers team that has a lot of money invested in its core and may not have a lot of avenues to improve its roster in the near future.
The Cleveland Cavaliers are expected to sign James Harden to a two-year deal this offseason,…
Former Cleveland Cavaliers and current Detroit Pistons head coach J.B. Bickerstaff recently reacted to Cavs…
The Cleveland Cavaliers made an audacious, win-now move prior to the trade deadline. They said…
The Cleveland Cavaliers have yet to make it past the second round of the playoffs…
Cleveland Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell opened up on his relationship with Darius Garland after the…
All-Star guards Donovan Mitchell and James Harden are expected to recruit LeBron James to the…