Ranking the Cavs’ top 5 players so far this season

Ranking the Cavs’ top 5 players so far this season: #3 – Evan Mobley

There is a very strong case for Evan Mobley to be at the top of this list. He has everything a team would want in a player at this point in their career. He can score, defend and even make plays at a high level despite standing at 7-feet tall.

Through the first quarter of his rookie season, Mobley has averaged 14.1 points per game, 8.1 rebounds and 2.6 assists while shooting 47.7 percent from the field and 33.3 percent from three on 2 attempts per game.

These are impressive numbers for a 20-year-old rookie with plenty of room to develop. However, they don’t even begin to paint the entire picture. Mobley has been a defensive phenom, it’s just a bonus that he can score at a fairly high rate.

Mobley leads all rookies with 1.9 blocks per game but, forget rookies. Evan Mobley ranks seventh in the entire NBA in blocks per game. He also ranks eighth in defensive rating, 11th in defensive win shares and 12th in defensive box plus-minus, per Basketball Reference. He’s a huge reason why the Cavs currently rank second in the NBA in defensive efficiency as a team.

The numbers are fantastic, so let’s look at some more.

Evan Mobley suffered a right elbow strain on Nov. 11. He was expected to miss 2-4 weeks, which would have resulted in the rookie sitting out 8-to-10 games. Mobley ended up missing just 4 games, coming back against the Orlando Magic in what proved to be the spark of the teams current 4-game winning streak.

When Evan Mobley is on the court, the Cavs are 13-6. This also means that the Cavs are 0-4 when he sits out. Therefore, Mobley is the definition of valuable. But, let me stop myself from diving into the “future MVP” talk and just focus on campaigning for the USC product to make his first All-Star appearance.

Mobley is in the drivers seat for the Rookie of the Year honors and he has solidified himself as a corner piece for the Cavaliers going forward.