Charlotte Hornets head coach Steve Clifford has high praise for Cleveland Cavaliers center Jarrett Allen

Charlotte Hornets coach Steve Clifford provided insight into what has made Cleveland Cavaliers' center Jarrett Allen successful this season ahead of their game on Monday.

Clifford was asked to compare Nick Richards and Allen, as they are both traditional bigs. He was quick to point out how they have different strengths despite filling similar roles.

“To be honest, they’re not very much alike,” Clifford said. “Nick [Richards’s] game is built more on strength and you know physicality . . . Allen’s game is built much more on just effort and purpose. His roll to the rim and second effort [are things] he does very naturally which isn’t easy to do.”

Allen has done this without being one of the most physically imposing centers in the league

“I would say that his physical gifts are length and size,” Clifford said. “He’s done a great job with developing and improving his strength over the years, but he was a good player when he was young and very thin.”

According to Clifford, Allen has been able to succeed behind relentless effort.

“I think that he knows how he has to play in order for him to play well and for the team to function, and he does it every time,” Clifford said. “He’s not one of those guys that runs when he feels like. He runs every possession. If you watch him on his rolls, he sprints to the rim. He does it every time.”

Understanding your role will always allow you to be the best version of yourself. It’s something that isn’t brought up nearly enough when evaluating players.

“One of the hardest things I think for players, and especially now where they don’t play as long in college and they’re not spending as much time with their high school coaches, is simply [knowing how to] play to your strengths,” Clifford said. “You know what your strengths are and you play to your strengths.”

This is something that has set Allen apart.

“It’s a huge skill,” Clifford said. “It's not just the center position, but there are guys in this league that score every night and they’re not very good. We don’t have guys coming into the league like him anymore who, to me, know how they have to play. It’s a real challenge.”

Allen has shown repeatedly that his feel for the game can cover up his lack of physicality in the regular season. That, however, was an issue last year in the first-round matchup against the New York Knicks due to Cleveland’s lack of rebounding

Clifford noted that a problem such as that is more of a team-wide failing rather than an individual player’s.

“I think some of those things come back to who else he’s on the floor with,” Clifford said after being asked about how to overcome physicality in the playoffs. “I would think that’s where [Evan] Mobley would be important.”

Clifford went on to say that the Knicks are tough to handle. Matchups like that require everyone to step up to contain them on the glass in a way the Cavs weren’t able to do last spring.

Despite the concern, Allen continues to get the most out of his game on a nightly basis. He also attributes that to his understanding of his game.

“I love the analogy that Bret Brielmaier came up with to get me into this league,” Allen said. “It’s like building a house. We wanted to build a solid foundation in terms of understanding the game, understanding the little movements. How to set a nice pick and roll. How to find the open man. You want to look at the basket, the corner, and then the high quadrant first.

“We wanted to make sure that I had a fundamental understanding of basketball before I started being able to turn around and take somebody off the dribble and do all of that. So I get what [Clifford] is saying. That was the plan since I got in the league.”