There’s some hiccups, but Cavs’ Evan Mobley is making passing impact

Rookie big Evan Mobley has made quite a difference on both ends of the floor for the Cleveland Cavaliers, even for a first-year player. The 20-year-old has not been forcing things that much, and yet has made an impact in a number of ways.

He’s had 14.0 points, 8.1 rebounds and 2.6 assists per contest, to go with 1.8 blocks per outing. His finishing on the interior has been key for Cleveland, and he has shown driving capabilities, fluidity in the transition game, and his cutting/off-ball feel has popped.

As one can attest, Mobley’s defense has been as advertised too, as even with him needing to get stronger in coming years, he has contested shots really well in the paint, and is tied for the league lead in contested shots per game, per NBA.com’s hustle data. Mobley’s versatility in being able to contain perimeter players in switchouts has aided the Cavaliers too, but he does need to clean up some things on closeouts to three-point shooters; that I’m not worried about, really.

Generally speaking, I’ve been pleased with Mobley’s play thus far, and his fit with Jarrett Allen and Lauri Markkanen often is coming along. It will still take time to get their chemistry down, as Markkanen missed nearly three weeks because of COVID-19 health and safety protocols, additionally, however, that trio has helped the Cavaliers win some big games to this point.

Here, though, we’ll bring it back to Mobley, and aside from his catch-and-shoot play being an encouraging sign lately, it’s been good to see his playmaking/passing feel on display a fair amount recently, too.

There will be some hiccups, but Mobley is making an impact as a passer more of late.

I’ll always put the caveat out there that we know Mobley is not going to be nearly the playmaking presence of Darius Garland or Ricky Rubio, for obvious reasons. Those guys are the two primary playmakers night to night for the Wine and Gold, as we know.

That said, for such a young big, Mobley’s passing and secondary playmaking acumen is starting to be utilized more it seems, or he’s just becoming more comfortable in seeing the floor with more experience, and that’s helped other guys more regularly.

Again, we’ve seen the impressive passing instincts and timing from Mobley throughout the season, and I’m not disputing that; it just seems that it’s been more prevalent that he’s getting guys open more of late.

While there are still some rookie moments when he turns it over in traffic, or there are hiccups where the passes are off the mark occasionally, Mobley’s passing has objectively helped the Cavaliers’ ball movement efforts, and his feel for passing out of the mid-post continues to show. That’s aided guys such as Garland, Kevin Love and Lauri Markkanen, and the big-to-big passes to Jarrett Allen are always a threat with the two building chemistry.

Since returning from a four-game absence due to a right elbow sprain, Mobley has had a respectable 3.0 assists per outing, and in those six contests, his assist rate has been 12.9 percent, which indicates continued growth there. Granted, Mobley’s passing was a clear strength throughout the past draft process, so him helping Cleveland as a secondary playmaker is not surprising, but it just has been seemingly more prevalent recently.

I’m not going to suggest that Mobley had the strongest of games on Monday night in Cleveland’s loss to the Milwaukee Bucks, as he was only 3-of-10 from the field, including 1-of-4 from three. I know, to reiterate, that he needs to add functional weight and get stronger over time to become more viable against bigger 4s/5s on both ends individually; regardless, his vision and sense for getting other guys open is already impactful.

He didn’t have a block against Milwaukee, which is a rarity, and Mobley got caught a few times in bad spots, but he did have two assists and frankly could’ve had others.

And even with struggles as a shooter in the prior games before that, Mobley affect games defensively, and had four assists in a blowout win at the Miami Heat (albeit shorthanded) on Wednesday, another four helpers at the Washington Wizards on Friday in another W, and three versus Utah in Sunday’s close L. The Cavaliers and Garland need to get him some better interior looks in upcoming games to get more of a rhythm, and he needs to get himself in some better spots.

On a positive note though, Mobley’s passing is coming along, and that’s been nice to see as he gets more experience. The dude will be just fine, and has been outstanding so far on the season as a whole.