Cavs: Evan Mobley’s defense was key positive from rough L to Bulls

One generally doesn’t take much away from preseason games, and the Cleveland Cavaliers didn’t have a good outing versus the Chicago Bulls on Tuesday, which their first game of that five-game slate. It was preseason, but losing by 36 is well, still losing by 36.

The Cavs offense was often out of sorts, as evidenced by 22 turnovers, and the new-look Bulls deserve their share of credit for that.

Offseason pickups such as Lonzo Ball (via sign-and-trade), Alex Caruso (free agency) and Zach LaVine, on the defensive end, even, were making things happen, and it led to Chicago getting their of transition opportunities, when those players were regularly in there. LaVine had 25 points in 24 minutes, to that point.

The Cavaliers, again, while they have some new guys themselves, didn’t have a respectable outing, but offseason trade acquisition Ricky Rubio did have some quality feeds, and Isaac Okoro’s defensive activity as a rotator stood out.

Rubio, who did look to bang his knee on another at one point, seemed fine, as an aside. He did have 10 points, a team-leading six assists and five rebounds; his six three-point attempts, of which he made one, was a bit puzzling, though.

Again, while it wasn’t a great contest for Cleveland, it was the first preseason game for them, and it will take some time to get the new guys feeling comfortable. Some action for them in other preseason outings should help in that way, I’d think, and for Lauri Markkanen, for instance, who had a tough go of it against his former Chicago club on Tuesday.

On the plus side, one key positive was the defensive play of Evan Mobley, who was a standout on that end for the Cavaliers, who as a club overall need to show better rotational feel against the Atlanta Hawks on Wednesday.

Cavs: Mobley’s defensive impact was the key positive from this blowout L to Chicago.

It wasn’t the most notable performance for Mobley on the offensive end, however, it will take some time for him there game-to-game.

I think he’ll still make an impact there, but he’ll need to get used to the physicality of the league inside; on that end, he had 10 points on three-of-seven shooting. He did make some nice passes that didn’t necessarily lead to production, as there weren’t any assists for him; those will come, with his vision and guard-like abilities, anyhow.

As we hit on, the rookie’s defensive play, was the key positive from this game, circling back.

Mobley’s going to again need to get stronger moving forward, even while he has added some muscle, as Bally Sports Ohio play-by-play announcers John Michael and Austin Carr noted, to get out there.

That said, as he and Jarrett Allen become more comfortable playing together, they’ll make their presence felt on defense, and in this one, Mobley’s ability to contain drivers and pull-up threats when needed did jump out. That was seen a number of times in this game, and it should help out Darius Garland, Collin Sexton and others even in the early going in the regular season, with preseason helping from a film standpoint, I believe.

Mobley, regardless of how he does in some stretches against post-up/traditional 5s in stretches, will make a noticeable difference for Cleveland due to his fluidity as a big in containing drivers/pull-up threats.

That was shown even in this Bulls game, and in one instance, it did lead to Mobley getting a heck of a block on Caruso; it was just one sequence, but this demonstrated how Mobley’s length and recovery quickness/timing will continually affect opposing shooters.

That type of thing was shown in his lone collegiate season at USC, where he had 2.9 blocks per contest, and altered tons of shots throughout games, as he will with the Cavaliers.

For what it’s worth, Mobley did have another block in this Tuesday preseason game as well, and it’s evident that he should provide Cleveland with another rim protector, too, feasibly in minutes at the 4 and 5, from a team defensive standpoint in that sense.

Additionally, while it will take time more experience to tap into it leading to potential turnovers, Mobley’s rotational feel did stand out, as compared to others, really, and him having eight rebounds in this one was a plus, I thought. His positioning was good there, and hopefully that continues.

Anyway, nobody’s going to dispute that the Cavs, whether it’s preseason or not, need to iron out some things, and feel-out games or not, they have to rebound from this Chicago L. It was preseason, sure, but that was a rough performance.

Mobley’s defensive impact was the bright spot that jumped out, though, and he’ll be a standout there early and often, even at just 20.