Brooklyn Nets: Jarrett Allen should be untouchable in trade talks

There has been speculation the Brooklyn Nets may look to trade up in the first round of Thursday’s NBA Draft, but Jarrett Allen should be off the table.

The Brooklyn Nets traded up in last year’s NBA Draft and with the 2018 draft coming up Thursday, teams are looking to either trade up to get their guy or trade down to gather more assets.

Last year, Brooklyn traded the franchise’s all-time leading scorer, Brook Lopez, to the Los Angeles Lakers and were looking for a player who would replace Lopez in the middle. With the 22nd pick of the 2017 draft, the Nets selected freshman big man Jarrett Allen out of Texas.

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Many people didn’t understand why the Nets chose Allen, as he was a reach at that spot and was considered a raw prospect by many NBA GMs. Nets general manager Sean Marks and coach Kenny Atkinson, however, raved about Allen.

Fast forward a year later and I will say that Jarrett Allen should be untouchable in trade talks for the Nets moving forward.

Though the Nets were happy about the pick, many in the Nets organization expected him to play most of the season in the G League.

He exceeded those expectations and broke out to become of the NBA’s top first-year players, leading all rookies in blocks (88) and blocks per game (1.2).

He finished the season playing 72 games, starting 31 of them. He averaged eight points and five rebounds per game while shooting 58 percent from the field.

After the first few games of the regular season, Allen started to play more, backing up then-starting center Timofey Mozgov. We started to see glimpses of why the Nets took him in the draft and it became evident that the Nets hit the lotto with this pick.

After not playing seven out of eight games in early November due to an injury, Allen came back. His minutes increased and his presence on the floor was felt. The Nets love to play position-less basketball with four guys on the perimeter and one guy in the paint.

Allen was a natural fit for the young Nets because of his defensive attitude and ability to block shots and finish at the rim. Allen also started to expand his range to the three-point line.

Though he only took 15 threes in the season, he made five of them and showed a soft touch on his mid-range jumper.

Once Allen became the starting center for the Nets, we realized how effective he was in the system and he started to flourish. The chemistry he built on the pick and roll with guards Caris LeVert, D’Angelo Russell and Spencer Dinwiddie proved effective and helped Allen’s growth.

The spacing of the offense helped Allen focus on a few things that were his strengths. On the defensive end, Allen was a rim protector for the Nets, blocking shots and contesting anything that came his way. For a 230-pound 19-year-old kid, he held his own.

This offseason, Allen will have to focus on putting on some weight so he doesn’t get bullied in the post and can better finish at the rim, but his future seems to be very bright.

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He exceeded expectations in his rookie year on the offensive end and showed that he can be a defensive force on the other end. The Nets would be wise to hold onto Allen for a long time as he showed he can be a building block for years to come.