NBA: Cavaliers’ Jarrett Allen could miss start of season with bone bruise

Cleveland Cavaliers center Jarrett Allen poses for a photo during an NBA media day, Monday, Oct. 2, 2023, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

CLEVELAND — Cleveland Cavaliers All-Star center Jarrett Allen could miss the start of the regular season with a bone bruise in his left ankle that will keep him out at least two weeks.

The Cavs said Saturday in a release that Allen was hurt this week during one of their first training camp practices. However, coach J.B. Bickerstaff indicated the center has been dealing with an issue for a while.

“It’s just one of those things over time,” Bickerstaff said following practice. “Not something that happened in practice and was triggered by something. It was something that had been building.”

The 6-foot-11 Allen underwent an MRI on Friday and has started a treatment and rehab program.

Allen, who averaged 14.3 points, 9.8 rebounds and 1.2 blocks last season, will be re-evaluated in two weeks. Based on the team’s timeline, Allen will miss the club’s three exhibition games and his status for the Oct. 25 season opener at Brooklyn is unclear.

Bickerstaff said is “hope” is that Allen will be ready for the Nets. Cleveland’s first home game is Oct. 27 against Oklahoma City.

“I can’t give you an honest answer on that because it’s a bone and everybody is different as far as how long those things take,” Bickerstaff said. “You can’t control everybody’s bone. But we wanted to do it now because we thought this was the best time.

FILE – Jarrett Allen #31 of the Cleveland Cavaliers shoots against the Miami Heat during the second quarter of the game at Miami-Dade Arena on March 08, 2023 in Miami, Florida. Megan Briggs/Getty Images/AFP

“Give him as much time to rest and see how it heals and do all the things we can to help a speedy recovery and go from there.”

Allen has averaged 14.5 points and 10.1 rebounds in three seasons for Cleveland. The affable 25-year-old was acquired in 2021 from the Nets in a three-team trade.

Allen anchors Cleveland’s defense and his loss creates a major void inside. The Cavs addressed their need for frontline depth in the offseason by acquiring center Damian Jones — a move that went under the radar — and re-signing free agent Tristan Thompson, who spent nine seasons with Cleveland and was on the club’s 2016 NBA title squad.

Bickerstaff noted the Cavs have versatile players who will allow him to use a variety of lineups.

“It gives other people an opportunity,” Bickerstaff said. “I think Damian Jones is kind of in that same ilk, so it doesn’t change a lot of things that we want to do and work on as far as his ability to play with Evan (Mobley) on the floor.

“Obviously having Tristan here also, you can still play with two big guys and still work around what you want to do. We will miss J.A. and his reps I think were going to be valuable for him, but we don’t have to make dramatic change because we do have other big guys who can kind of fill in and play that role.”