13. Denver Nuggets – Jarrett Allen
Jarrett Allen is who he is. And what he is is a pick and roll big man who is a lob threat on offense and protects the rim on defense. He’s not a threat to shoot the ball from deep and he won’t do much good as a low post scorer, but he knows his role and thrives in it.
Allen is an efficient player and if you look at his numbers he probably deserves to be picked sooner in this redraft. But the problem with Allen going higher in a redraft is that his role is pretty replaceable. There are a lot of big guys who can catch lobs and play good defense so they’re really a dime a dozen.
Drafting a player like Allen any higher than this is kind of like drafting a quarterback in the first round of your fantasy football draft – you’re getting a good player, but you could have got a similar player at a lower cost.
That doesn’t mean Allen isn’t great in his role, because he is, and he’s a safe value pick for the Nuggets at 13.