3 areas where Cavs’ Evan Mobley needs to improve in season’s 2nd half

Take your shots, and make your shots

Going into the second half of the season, I would expect to see a boost in Mobley’s play. Up to this point, the big Californian has converted on over 51 percent of his field goals. That number is on the lower side for a big man, but Mobley has already shown the ability to pull up with conviction from further out on the floor.

He is hitting nearly 70 percent of his shots in the paint, while also hitting on over 50 percent of his shots from the 10-15 foot range. Finally, the big man is hitting almost 30 percent of his three-point attempts, while shooting a decent 71 percent from the charity stripe.

As you can see, Mobley is shooting pretty efficiently so far in his rookie season. However, if there was ever a time for him to be more aggressive, it will come in the second half of the season. That’s not to say that in recent weeks, he hasn’t been, as he’s had a production uptick. We need to see that more consistently from him, though, as Mobley is more than capable of filling it up.

And with Darius Garland playing like a young Kyrie Irving, teams will try and shut him down in the second half of the season as he is clearly the leader and floor general. Mobley will also get more shot attempts as defenses look to shut down Jarrett Allen. I expect Mobley to raise his three-point percentage to at least 35 percent at the end of the year, and would love to see him shooting more shots from 15-20 feet. Finally, I think the goal for Mobley when it comes to free throws should be at least over 75 percent.

That’s only a five percent rise, but I have a feeling teams are going to try and out-muscle Mobley, so he should get to the line more. Overall, Mobley just needs to continue to look for his shot, while also shooting efficiently in the second half of the season, as he has in recent weeks. He just needs to build on those further from here.

There are more than a couple things to look forward to in the NBA for the next couple of months. In about a month, the best players, and biggest celebrities in the world will convene in Cleveland for the 71st playing of the NBA All-Star Game. On top of that, if the Cavaliers can keep up their winning ways, a playoff appearance for the first time since 2018 should be an attainable goal.

So on top of increasing his shots, and working on defensive rebounding, the rookie should be in a playoff series come spring. When it really comes down to it at crunch time in a couple of months, we just have to hope the Cavs are contending for a playoff spot.

And regarding that, if Mobley can work on the three things I mentioned, it’s going to be very disappointing if the Cavs don’t make the playoffs for the first time since 2018.