Cavs: Grades are top of the class for team on the rise
By John Suchan
The Cleveland Cavaliers continue to impress this season. This new confident group stands at 9-5 on the young season. They have moved up to fourth in the NBA Eastern Conference standings and are certainly giving off the vibe that they are amid a run to make the playoffs for the first time in several years. The Cavs haven’t started this well in a season since their championship season of 2015-16 and the following year when they got to nine wins a bit sooner.
The new rookie sensation for the Wine and Gold, Evan Mobley is one of the main reasons for this new resurgence of the franchise and he has been as good as advertised and quite honestly I don’t think anyone would have predicted such a great start for the 20-year-old.
Other players for Cleveland, like Ricky Rubio and Jarrett Allen have stepped up big time this season, too. Rubio has been on fire this year averaging nearly 14 points and dishing out seven assists a game. Allen has been much more consistent too of late. He’s now averaging a double-double with 14 points a game and nearly 11 rebounds.
The Cavaliers played three games this past week and went 2-1. That should have been 3-0, if Cleveland’s head coach J.B. Bickerstaff hadn’t made a late-game substitution in the Washington Wizards game that the team lost. The Cavs recovered not only after that game against the Detroit Pistons, but they came back in the follow-up game, being down 19 points in the third quarter to storm back and win late over the Boston Celtics.
So with that, let’s dive into the details a bit more and give the Cavs players a grade for the week that was.
Evan Mobley Grade: A
On the year, Mobley is now up to a 15.6 points and 7.9 rebounds a game average. The kid just gets better with every game. His shot selection is so impressive. He’s hitting baseline jumpers from inside and outside. He has been backing his opponents down in the lane and then knocking down a nifty turnaround. He can take the ball off the dribble, cross over and finish at the rim with either hand as well. He never seems rushed with his shots either.
The defense he’s shown has continued to be stellar. His ability to alter shots near the rim is impressive. In the win against the Celtics he had a tremendous block on a transition attempt by the Jayson Tatum as well.