Cavs Notes: Allen, Mobley, Enaruna, Fanan, Playoffs
Jarrett Allen‘s right knee injury remains a concern for the Cavaliers as the regular season winds down. Allen missed 10 consecutive games in March due to what multiple people within the organization have referred to as “severe” tendonitis, according to Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com (subscription required). Allen has been back in the starting lineup for two of the team’s past three contests, but that doesn’t mean he’s fully healthy.
“Definitely still sore out there. Definitely not 100 percent,” the Cavs’ center told Fedor after Tuesday’s loss to the Lakers. “I’m not able to put a lot of pressure on my knee sometimes. Jumping and landing on the knee still hurts. Not as much as before, when I first got hurt, but still managing it and definitely still struggling with it.”
While head coach Kenny Atkinson expressed hope that Allen will be back to full strength for the playoffs, the 27-year-old admitted he’s not sure whether or not that will be the case, as Fedor relays.
“I don’t know,” Allen said. “It’s just the truthful answer to that. Hopefully it gets better. I’ve gone through tendonitis all of my career. That’s just a big man’s thing you have to deal with. I think it is going to get better. We have been doing so much to make it get better — and it has — but I can’t answer that question.”
We have more on the Cavs:
- After not making this year’s All-Star Game, Evan Mobley was challenged by Atkinson to come out of the break with a “chip on your shoulder,” Fedor writes in another story for Cleveland.com (subscription required). Mobley has responded to that challenge admirably. Prior to a quiet game on Tuesday vs. the Lakers, he had put up 20.2 points, 9.6 rebounds, 2.6 assists, and 1.5 blocks per game while shooting 62.4% from the floor in his first 17 post-All-Star outings. “It was a simple conversation about using it as a chip on my shoulder and knowing the value that I bring to this team,” Mobley said of his February discussion with Atkinson. “Since then, just been working and trying to get better with the team as new guys came. Just focus on my game and trying to expand it as much as possible.”
- Rookie forward Tristan Enaruna, who is on a two-way contract with the Cavaliers and is in his second season in the G League, has been named the NBAGL’s Most Improved Player (Twitter link). After averaging 11.0 points per game on .466/.294/.588 shooting in 46 appearances for the Maine Celtics last season, Enaruna has increased those numbers to 20.3 PPG with a .548/.378/.750 shooting line in 38 outings for the Cleveland Charge in 2025/26. Bucks two-way player Cormac Ryan was the runner-up for the award, with another Charge player – guard Darius Brown II – placing third in voting.
- Enaruna wasn’t the only member of Charge to be recognized today by the G League. The team’s general manager, Liron Fanan, was named G League Basketball Executive of the Year for 2025/26, becoming the first woman to win the award (Twitter link). Fanan helped compile a Charge roster that went 23-13 during the regular season and had six players – including Enaruna and Brown – called up to the NBA.
- The Cavaliers can officially clinch a playoff spot on Wednesday, but it will require the Sixers to lose to the 17-58 Wizards, per the NBA (Twitter link). Washington has won just one of its last 20 games.
Central Notes: Pistons, Cavs, Pacers, Craig
The Pistons didn’t have the “loud and exciting” free agency that some fans were anticipating, but they’ve added veteran depth to their young roster, according to James L. Edwards of The Athletic, who notes that former lottery picks like Marvin Bagley III, James Wiseman, and Killian Hayes project to be low enough on the depth chart that they’ll have to earn their minutes.
Edwards does believe that all three of Bagley, Wiseman, and Hayes are candidates to be traded before or during the 2023/24 season. While more established veterans like Bojan Bogdanovic or Alec Burks could theoretically be moved too, none of the public statements made by general manager Troy Weaver about the team’s roster suggests that’s in the cards at this point, Edwards writes.
Here’s more from around the Central:
- The Cavaliers‘ 2023 offseason hasn’t been as splashy as in 2022, when the club acquired Donovan Mitchell. However, the team has accomplished virtually everything it set out to do by lining up deals to add a starting-caliber wing (Max Strus), a frontcourt shooter (Georges Niang), and a reserve center (Damian Jones), says Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com. The club also re-signed its own top free agent, Caris LeVert, and will bring in a player Koby Altman has targeted in the past: Ty Jerome. Cleveland tried to sign Jerome to a two-way contract a year ago, per Fedor, but he joined Golden State instead.
- The Cavaliers announced minor some changes within their front office, having promoted Brendon Yu to be the team’s director of scouting. Yu previously held the position of Cleveland Charge general manager, a role that will be taken over by Liron Fanan, the first female G League GM in team history.
- Some of the top forwards on the free agent market – including Harrison Barnes and Kyle Kuzma – may have used the Pacers‘ interest as leverage to get better deals with their own teams, notes Dustin Dopirak of The Indianapolis Star. Still, even if it wasn’t Indiana’s Plan A in free agency, Bruce Brown and Obi Toppin represent solid additions who won’t necessarily compromise the team’s financial flexibility beyond 2023/24, as Dopirak details.
- Besides being able to play both forward spots and defend multiple positions, Torrey Craig will also bring some much-needed shooting to the Bulls, writes Darnell Mayberry of The Athletic. As Mayberry observes, Chicago has ranked dead last in the NBA in each of the two seasons. Craig, who agreed to a two-year deal with the team, made a career-best 39.5% of his attempts from beyond the arc last season.