Three-Pointers For Jarrett Allen?! Cavaliers Head Coach Seems Open To It

Kenny Atkinson seems open to the Cleveland Cavaliers center taking more three-point shots.

Dec 23, 2023; Chicago, Illinois, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers center Jarrett Allen (31) shoots a free throw against the Chicago Bulls during the second half at United Center. Mandatory Credit: Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn Images / Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn Images

Jarrett Allen is already considered to be one of the top big men in the league. The Cleveland Cavaliers center is consistently one of the best defensive bigs in basketball, and his offense game has evolved since he was drafted into the league.

One area where the 26-year-old could still take his game to the next level is with his outside shot. Could we actually see Allen take more threes in Cleveland's offense next season?

New Cavaliers head coach Kenny Atkinson weighed in on this topic during Tuesday's media availability and seemed open to the idea in the right situation.

"He's gotta prove it. He's gotta prove it," said Atkinson with a smile on his face.

After a quick chuckle, Atkinson got a little more serious and didn't completely shut down the idea of letting Allen take a long-range shot from time to time.

"We do deep dives on each guy's shooting. We have a lot of in-game data ... we have all of these metrics. We have free throw shooting, we know good free throw shooting equals confidence in the three-point shooting. So, we'll keep looking at it. But again, Ja's got to prove it to me."

Using free throw percentage as a possible indicator of three-point shooting, the idea of letting Allen take more outside shots isn't that wild. JA shot 74 percent from the charity stripe last season. While not elite, that's still his best free throw percetange in a Wine and Gold jersey.

Apr 6, 2024; Los Angeles, California, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers center Jarrett Allen (31) shoots against the Los Angeles Lakers during the first half at Crypto.com Arena. Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images / Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images

JA does most of his damage on offense and defense in the paint. That's not going to change next season, and we won't see Allen average four or five three-point attempts a game.

However, if he is able to prove that he can knock down a corner three or an open long-range shot from time to time, it would certainly help with the floor spacing with this offense and force opponents to at least have this on their radar when they're preparing to face the Cavs.