Cavs’ Evan Mobley is going deeper into bag, leading to uptick in production

It’s safe to say that Evan Mobley is off to an excellent start with the Cleveland Cavaliers. He’s had 14.8 points, 8.2 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.8 blocks per outing through 30 games, and is one of the crucial reasons why the Cavaliers have had the league’s third-best defensive rating thus far.

Mobley coming into the season had the potential to be a big-time contributor on both ends of the floor for Cleveland, even early on, and he has been that and more. His defensive feel, rim protecting/shot altering without fouling much, and his ability to contain driving and pull-up threats for a big has been incredible to watch, and his defensive combination with Jarrett Allen has been huge for the Cavs.

Offensively, his cutting timing, touch inside both on and off-ball and finishing with authority has been outstanding for such a young big also. Plus, his passing versatility has made him one of Cleveland’s better secondary playmakers, and that sort of thing is part of why Mobley fits so seamlessly with a variety of Cavaliers players.

On the offensive end lately, though, somewhat because of injuries and players being in COVID-19 health and safety protocols, we’ve seen more of Mobley creating on-ball, and he’s still had plenty of success. Dating back to before he missed four games due to COVID-19 protocols, Mobley has had 16.8 points per contest in his last nine appearances, and we’re seeing him dip into the bag more on that end.

Mobley’s expanding his game, leading to an uptick in production of late.

With Ricky Rubio out for the rest of the season as of last week, along with Collin Sexton since early in the season, and without a number of other guys in recent weeks when he’s been active, we’ve seen more on-ball work from Mobley. The rookie big has demonstrated he’s more than up to the task, too, as we noted.

Mobley has shown he’s more than capable of finding ways to generate angles along the baseline leading to productive interior looks, where he’s been able to connect, or utilize pump fakes to get into driving gaps at times leading to dunks.

This touch, body control and skill level from Mobley on this up-and-under (#4 below) in a loss at the Washington Wizards was something else for a 7-footer to be able to do, let alone as a rookie.

Even for a guy that’s listed at 215 pounds, and definitely needs to put on meaningful weight in coming seasons, Mobley has shown legit post-up viability throughout the season, too.

That’s not played out in all matchups, but he’s still been able to create angles for short hooks at times with that, or has been able to use his footwork to get to easy looks, where he’s still been able to convert on the interior efficiently overall. Mobley has placed in the 86th percentile this season in post-up scoring on a 15.1 percent frequency, per Synergy Sports, and we’ve again seen him on-point in that realm a considerable amount in recent weeks when he’s been in there.

Along with that, we’ve seen Mobley get to in-rhythm pull-ups and/or fadeaways operating out of the mid-post over the past month-plus. On the season, he’s converted on 14-of-24 of his turnaround fadeaway attempts (58.3 percent), and now 9-of-18 on pull-ups (50.0 percent), to go with 9-of-18 on turnaround hook shots, all per NBA.com’s shooting data.

We saw plenty of Mobley’s on-ball creation abilities on display in a close win over the Indiana Pacers, albeit with both teams somewhat shorthanded. In that one, he was getting to the foul line from sound pump fakes, creating on the low block and he knocked in a number of jump shots from generating his own looks, en route to 24 points on 11-of-16 shooting.

Mobley will be right in the running for the league’s Rookie of the Year all season long, provided he’s mostly healthy, based on how he’s affected games on both ends for a surprisingly good Cavs team this season, to echo our own Josh Cornelissen’s sentiment.

Him going deeper into his offensive bag leading to a recent uptick in production has been great to see too, though, and it only makes me all the more bullish on his outlook for the rest of the season, and for coming years.

The USC product continues to amaze with his poise, skill level and feel offensively, and Mobley’s unselfishness coupled with those scoring gifts makes him so dangerous, even at 20 and still developing from three.