Cavs: The three stars from their five-game road trip

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Evan Mobley, Cleveland Cavaliers. (Photo by Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports) /

While the Cleveland Cavaliers are at home Wednesday night for a brief one-game homestand, they are coming off a reasonably successful road trip.

This five-game road trip saw the Cavaliers pick up wins at the Denver Nuggets, Los Angeles (versus the Clippers), and in Charlotte over the Hornets.

If the Cavs were going to succeed on their road trip, they needed to have quality efforts from multiple players on the roster. However, there were a few players that stood out over the past five games.

To that point, we’ll highlight three Cavs, in particular, that starred over those five contests here.

There’s no need to bury the lead.

The Cavs first star: Evan Mobley

The first star from this road trip is the rookie, Evan Mobley. The 7-foot big man out of USC flashed some incredible potential throughout the road trip, but the game that stood out was the Cavaliers game against the star-studded Los Angeles Lakers squad.

Mobley led with 23 points on 63 percent shooting and also grabbed six rebounds, albeit in a loss; he clearly has a believer in LeBron James, though, and it’s evident Mobley looks like a special player.

Mobley also chipped in 12 points and 10 rebounds with two blocks against the Clippers in a W. The rookie notched his second double-double of the road trip on Monday in Charlotte with 15 points and 10 boards.

There was plenty of hype surrounding the No. 3 overall pick, and amongst the starters, he had the best plus-minus on this road trip at 3.8. But, what has been impressive from Mobley is his ability on the defensive end to contest shots. So far this season, he leads the NBA with 16.1 contested shots per game, per NBA.com’s player hustle data.

While contested shots aren’t a stat you see lead any headlines, it is pretty remarkable that the Cavaliers rookie leads the entire league in a statistical category this early in the season. If Mobley can be a reliable defender while he brings along his offensive game, the sky is the limit moving forward this season and beyond.

But Mobley isn’t the only young player showing early flashes of their potential.