Jarrett Allen on Cavs' 56-12 start, Donovan Mitchell's leadership, and Evan Mobley's DPOY campaign (EXCLUSIVE)

Even before he inherited the Cleveland Cavaliers’ head-coaching job and innovated the team’s offense, Kenny Atkinson held firm beliefs about the dynamic between Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen.

“Before I got here,” Atkinson said, “they had a really good connection.”

Not as much as the Cavaliers had hoped, though. Throughout last season that ended with a second-round playoff exit to the future NBA champions (Boston Celtics), Allen and Mobley showed learning curves with not getting in each other’s way offensively.

This season? Different story. The Cavaliers (56-12) have a 6½ game lead over the Boston Celtics (50-19) for the Eastern Conference’s top seed partly because Mobley has averaged career-highs during his fourth season in points (18.6) and has established himself as a favorite to win Defensive Player of the Year.

Allen has averaged career-lows in points (13.7), but he has excelled as an additional frontcourt defender. After firing J.B. Bickerstaff following five seasons, the Cavaliers have partly credited Atkinson’s innovative offense for the strong turnaround.

“We’ve changed the spacing a little offensively with them and have Evan handle things more and be more of a playmaker,” Atkinson said. "Jarrett has had to sacrifice a little. But they still have a great connection.”

The reason: both players struggled playing together more for tactical reasons over any personality conflicts.

“They have great chemistry. They love each other,” Atkinson said. “There really is no jealousy there and that stuff. They just have a great bond.”

Allen revealed the respect he has for Mobley in an interview with Sportskeeda. He talked about Mobley’s DPOY chances and overall growth. Allen also touched on the Cavs’ strong start, Atkinson’s offense and Donovan Mitchell’s leadership.

Editor’s note: The following one-on-one conversation has been edited and condensed.

I understand you had your core already and some playoff experience already. But did you see this kind of dominant success happening this season?

Allen: “Not this level of success. This is monumental, historic-level type of success. I knew we were going to be good, but not with however many winning streaks we had.”

What explains this kind of success?

Allen: “Just our consistency with doing it every single game. We are a young team. We are still learning how to become great. But I feel like we’re doing it at a high level right now.”

What impact has Kenny made that wasn’t there before?

Allen: “His different style of offense. He implemented something new that a lot of us haven’t seen before, including myself. We all bought into it, and we’re making it work.”

For both basketball junkies and casual fans, what are the main things offensively that you think make a difference?

Allen: “Our cutting principles. You see a lot of cutting on our team. You see a lot of off-ball movement to try to confuse the defense. It’s not just only pick-and-roll. We’re trying everything.”

What has that done for your game?

Allen: “It’s opened up screening opportunities for me with flaring and getting guys open. It’s really gotten me toward the 3-point line. How I scored hasn’t changed too much. As a big man, you roll. I’m not really impacting the offense with ball-handling situations and stuff like that.

"So that hasn’t changed too much for me. It’s just spacing. The NBA is all about spacing. The NBA is all about creating the best offense possible. That’s done through creating spacing and open lanes for driving.”

I remember talking to you last year about the adjustments you and Evan faced with playing together. How have you seen that dynamic grow under this different offense?

Allen: “Evan is really benefitting from this offense. You can see his numbers and his confidence. We can all see it. He’s leading our team. It makes it easier. We have our separate roles now. He’s on the outside, shooting 3s, running the offense and pushing it. And I’m in the dunker doing what I’m used to.”

What do you think Evan has done to take his defensive game to an even bigger level?

Allen: “He’s always been good at it. Since he came in the league, he’s been in talks about being the best defender in the league. I think it’s just his confidence is growing and he’s understanding the game more and everything is slowing down for him.”

And now he’s a heavy favorite for DPOY. Now that Wemby is out, what’s your pitch for him to win?

Allen: “He’s in the mix. He is the mix. He is the main ingredient in that mix. He has a real chance at winning it. Obviously, you have all the stats and all of that. But there is stuff you don’t see.

"There is the pick-and-roll defense. There is the switching, the rebounding and stuff like that that you don’t see on the stat sheet. He’s helping other guys make their job easier.”

How does he make your job easier?

Allen: “It’s kind of like we move without even having to talk. Sometimes he knows that if I go to help, he has to go get my man. If he goes to help, it’s vice versa. It’s stuff like that.”

How do you compare Donovan’s season to his past two years in Cleveland?

Allen: “He’s taking on that leadership role. He knows that we have something special. He knows that his game and his mentality has to evolve in a way that it hasn’t had to before. So he’s leading us even better than he was last year.”

How so?

Allen: “You can set an example on the court playing hard. He always does that. But just his communication in the locker room. In the film sessions, he’s calling himself out. He’s making sure that people know that he’s messing up too, and he’s not perfect.”

There was a lot of thought that he and Darius [Garland] got in each other’s way. It’s been the exact opposite. What did you see then and what do you see now?

Allen: “That was the whole motto for everybody about us last year. ‘Evan and I aren’t able to work together. Darius and Don wouldn’t work together.’ But now you see everybody thriving. Don is having a really good career despite not even playing as many minutes.

"Darius is getting back to playing to his true form (after his injury). It’s working as it should. Now that we have played a lot of games [together], I feel like we’re meshing together even better now.”

So it as simple as more games together?

Allen: “I think so, and the new offense and everything. With not being able to play a lot of games together, it takes time to create chemistry. A lot of guys were hurt last year. It was tough to do that.”

But now that they’re back, what did each of them do to have a healthy blend of scoring and playmaking without stepping on each other?

Allen: “Basketball IQ and just being good dudes. You don’t sacrifice for another guy, knowing it can hurt you on the other end.”

How did you see Darius bounce back from his serious injury?

Allen: “That’s what we knew was going to happen. We all knew what type of player he was, and he’s finally breaking out of his shell. To break a jaw is scary.”

What impact has DeAndre [Hunter] made since the trade?

Allen: “Defensive impact, and he meshes right in. It’s not hard to implement guys that really want to be here.”

Everyone is impressed with your season. But there’s a lot of commentary on what this means for the playoffs. How do you view that?

Allen: “I feel like this is a steppingstone for us to get to the playoffs. We know we have a lot of things to clean up. We know we have a lot of things to improve on. But I feel like every single game, we take it as a game-by-game basis to make us the team that we want to be in the playoffs.”

What are the things you’re trying to clean up?

Allen: “Offense, defense, and just small things. We know we have a greater picture that we can be good at. But there are certain tweaks that we’re not satisfied with.”

Mark Medina is an NBA insider for Sportskeeda. Follow him on X, Blue Sky, Instagram, Facebook and Threads.