CLEVELAND – Cavaliers center Jarrett Allen has agreed to a three-year, $91 million contract extension with Cleveland, a person familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
Allen, who has become indispensable for the Cavs as well as one of the Eastern Conference’s top big men, will be guaranteed $131 million over the next five seasons, said the person who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the deal has not been signed.
The Cavs hope to announce Allen’s extension as early as Thursday, the person said.
One of Allen’s agents, Derrick Powell, gave details of the deal earlier to ESPN.
The affable Allen is part of Cleveland’s “Core 4” of players along with All-Star guard Donovan Mitchell, guard Darius Garland and forward Evan Mobley.
The group helped Cleveland make the playoffs for the second year in a row and the Cavs advanced past the first round before losing to eventual champion Boston in the conference semifinals.
The 26-year-old Allen is the third key player to sign an extension with the Cavs this summer, following deals f or Mitchell (3 years, $150.3 million) and Mobley (5 years, $224 million). The team also hired Kenny Atkinson as its new coach.
An All-Star in 2022, Allen averaged a career-high 16.5 points and 10.5 rebounds and 2.7 assists in 77 games for Cleveland last season.
Allen was especially productive during a long stretch in which Garland and Mobley were both out with injuries as former Cavs coach J.B. Bickerstaff ran some offense through the 6-foot-11 center.
After he was criticized for being pushed around by New York’s frontline in the 2023 playoffs — and saying the “lights” may have been too bright for the Cavs — Allen got off to a great start in the opening round against Orlando before suffering a broken rib.
The painful injury kept him out of the final three games against the Magic and the entire series against the Celtics.
Allen, who played at Texas, was taken in the first round of the 2017 draft (No. 22 overall) by Brooklyn and spent three-plus seasons with the Nets before being traded to Cleveland in 2021.
With Allen in the lineup the past two years, the Cavs went 90-55. Without him, they were 9-10.
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