On Monday afternoon the Cleveland Cavaliers took on one of the best teams in the Eastern Conference, the Brooklyn Nets, and beat them at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. That win was the Cavaliers’ fifth straight, and going into Wednesday night, they could have solidified themselves as being a real contender in the East. Unfortunately, that win did not happen, as the Cavs took their first loss in five games in Chicago to the Bulls.
DeMar DeRozan led all scorers with 30 points, while Darius Garland poured in 20 for the Cavaliers. Rookie of the Year favorite Evan Mobley also had a solid game, scoring 18 points on 8-of-12 shooting, including 1-of-1 from three. The Cavaliers cannot dwell on the loss, as they host the Oklahoma City Thunder on Saturday.
Now that we’ve covered the Cavs loss, we can finally take a deeper look at the latest Rookie Ladder. This is Mobley’s second straight week atop the ladder. Over his last 12 games he’s averaging over 17 points per game, over seven rebounds, and almost a block-and-a half per game. There’s a case to be made that Mobley deserves to be in the All-Star Game this year, too.
Following behind Mobley is Cade Cunningham, which was a bit of a surprise, as Scottie Barnes had that spot locked down for the majority of the season. Speaking of Barnes, he drops to third, with Franz Wagner and Josh Giddey behind him. Now, it’s pretty clear to most people, including me, that Evan Mobley is the favorite to win the Rookie of the Year Award.
However, the battle for the second rung could go down to the wire. With that being said I’m going to point out a couple things Mobley needs to improve on, and then get into who really should be in the second spot.
Mobley’s been great, but there’s still room to improve
Listen, Evan Mobley has been a revelation this year for the Cavs. I will put my hand up and say I was disappointed when the big man from USC fell to them, as I was a huge Jalen Green fan. But it’s almost as if the Cavaliers and Mobley are playing with house money at this point, so any more improvement will be a nice little cherry on top of Mobley’s rookie season.
The 7-footer has been great for the Cavs, especially on defense. He’s sixth in the league with 1.7 blocks per game. Having he and Jarrett Allen in the paint when any opposing player is driving to the hoop is great. When a shot misses, is when Mobley is most vulnerable. His first major improvement in my opinion, needs to be rebounding.
Yes, he’s averaging nearly eight per game, but he could be collecting a lot more. Sometimes when a shot goes up, he looks lost. On top of that, he’s significantly leaner than most NBA bigs, so putting on some muscle soon would sure help.
The only other observation I’ll make about Mobley today is that he needs to pick up his free throw shooting. It still boggles my mind that professional basketball players struggle making free throws. Right now, Mobley is shooting just over 70 percent from the charity stripe, and that’s not terrible. However, he needs to start to become automatic at the line.
It may take some time, but his shooting stroke is solid, and the talent is there for him to be an 80 percent free throw shooter. If he could honestly get that percentage up to 80 percent, there would be even fewer ways to stop the young man.
We know who’s No. 1, but what about No. 2?
Up until this week, the only players to grace the top spot in the rookie ladder were Franz Wagner, Scottie Barnes, and Mobley. Although this go-round, we have a new number two, and I think most of us saw this coming. Cade Cunningham is finally coming into his own for the Detroit Pistons.
Also, he’s known for his slow starts, going back to his college days, but now he truly is the franchise centerpiece in Detroit. In my opinion, it was only a matter of time until Cunningham graced one of the top three spots.
With Cunningham taking over in the top spot, Scottie Barnes falls to three. I’m actually very on-board with this move.
Barnes failed to impress coming out of college, and is finally now coming back down to earth after a great start. He’s missed multiple games in the NBA’s Health and Safety Protocols, and he just isn’t elite at one skill, which can at times be a good thing. Barnes is your true definition of a versatile player. He’s starting to remind me a lot of Draymond Green, just not quite as sturdy.
From there, the biggest faller this week was Franz Wagner, who had been in the top spot twice in recent weeks, but this week drops to four. Wagner has also been a guy that has come back down to earth a little after a great past couple of weeks. It will be very interesting to see how Wagner’s role changes when Cole Anthony and company return to the lineup.
Overall, Cade Cunningham is the second-best player in this past draft, and he will be the one fighting it out with Mobley for Rookie of the Year. Barnes and Wagner would need to pick up their play if they also want to be in that conversation.
As I said earlier, Barnes just isn’t elite at anything, and you need elite players in this league to be real contenders.