The Cleveland Cavaliers have been a struggling team over the past three seasons, that’s certainly not a mystery.
The team has been drafting players, mostly guards in that window including Darius Garland and Collin Sexton, and a wing in Isaac Okoro. They’ve also added a a couple nice big men in that time including players like Jarrett Allen (via trade), Lauri Markkanen (via sign-and-trade) and Dean Wade (undrafted free agency). But the biggest piece to the Cavs turning the corner on lousiness is their drafting of Evan Mobley, the 7-foot big out of USC.
The 2021-22 season is only a couple weeks away and the Cavaliers have begun preseason play and you can already see the effect of adding Mobley to the mix and why the Cavs have a much brighter future ahead. Let’s look a little closer as to why Mobley’s presence will accelerate the Wine and Gold returning to respectability.
Reason #3: The talent is there
When you draft a player like Mobley at #3 in this past NBA Draft, you are expecting big things and thus far he hasn’t disappointed. His minutes on the floor this preseason would certainly indicate to me that he’ll be a starter. His time on the floor so far has been impressive.
He’s establishing his presence in the paint already by swatting away multiple blocked shots. His perimeter defense too has been noticeably good. In one play against his opponent, he got out of position out on the wing but was able to close and knock away a shot because of his quick recovery and footwork; you can see that below on a shot from Alex Caruso.
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Not all big men have that skill set. For Mobley, he looks very smooth with his motions on both offense and defense.
Defense wins games and having Mobley in there now will be a huge factor in this team’s growth and progress.
Offensively, Mobley has a really good downhill approach to the rim when he gets the ball on the outside.
What I like about his game, while he’ll need to add strength to be more effective in post-up play against bigs, he’s not afraid to turn and face his opponent and aggressively go to the basket; his handle is key in that respect, too. Granted, he can back down smaller matchups, and his quick spin both left and right to the rim should regularly lead to success for him it seems.
His ability to roll to the rim off the ball has been notable too in a few of these preseason games already. His knowledge of the game and knowing when to set the high screen and then roll is very smooth.
Reason #2: Safe and secure
It makes a difference when a team and its players and coaches know they have a very talented player like Mobley on the team now.
I know it’s not the same level of play when I coached middle school basketball teams, but I always reference this one team I had almost two decades ago. If you’ve done any basketball coaching, especially at the middle school level, you know if you have a good guard, ball handler and quarterback of the team plus a capable post player and big man then you are half way home to the championship every season.
That’s what happened one season I had a group of seventh graders. We had those ingredients and we won the league championship. I knew, as did the players on that team that we had the talent needed to win games.
The Cavs now have that same level of talent with the addition of Mobley. They can now rely on a player that they know will fill up the paint and swat shots away, even as an added player with Jarrett Allen in that realm, too.
From there, they know they have a player on offense that isn’t going to shy away from his opponent or the basket and instead will become more relentless as he plays games. Other teams know this now or soon will as the season gets started and that’s another win for the Cavs and their growth as a team.
The Cavaliers have had big men in the past three seasons and Allen is a good player, but now adding in another talent next to him in that frontcourt will only make his game improve and make opposing teams more willing to stay out of the paint in fear of Cleveland’s rim protectors.
Reason #1: The veterans’ presence
The progress of the Cavs this year will be centered on Mobley’s growth but helping that progress will be the older veterans like guard Ricky Rubio and forward Kevin Love. Both are in there latter years of playing, however, both can help Mobley this season. Rubio is already invested in getting Mobley touches as he’s connected a few times with Mobley on pick-and-rolls where Mobley’s been able to flush home a few buckets.
It’s intriguing to me that both Rubio and Love basically started their careers together with the Minnesota Timberwolves and now have returned to play together on their way out of the league.
That can certainly have its affect on this Cavs team and a player like Mobley can only improve by way of their leadership, and Garland has already praised Rubio, in that regard and for his play. Because of the influx of Mobley into the starting lineup, to go with Lauri Markkanen, who will have a bigger role than Love it appears, Love will be in a bench role.
But if he can come to terms with that, and he’s seemingly on-board with it, with Mobley in tow, this Cleveland team can maybe be better off than some might think.
The season hasn’t started yet and when it does the Cavs will essentially begin with a tough road trip on the West Coast. The team might struggle but giving Mobley his time to fit into his new team will only improve and I’m banking on that improvement helping this team improve too, and they might surprise people along the way.