Cavs’ Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen among ‘Next Five’ in DPOY Ladder

Throughout this season, we’ve seen how much of an impact rookie big Evan Mobley has made for the Cleveland Cavaliers.

I can’t give Cleveland a humongous pat on the back for selecting Mobley at #3 overall, particularly after Cade Cunningham and Jalen Green went #1 and #2 to the Detroit Pistons and Houston Rockets prior to that, to get that out there first. But for these Cavaliers, Mobley has been such a difference-maker, even with him just 20 years old.

On the season, Mobley has had 14.9 points, 8.1 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 1.6 blocks per contest, and by the looks of it, he appears to have superstar potential in the not-too-distant future. Based on how Mobley has done for the Wine and Gold, it wasn’t the most surprising thing that he was the crucial reason as to why the USC Trojans made an Elite Eight run last season, in what was Mobley’s only collegiate season.

Mobley’s skill level, touch inside the arc, finishing prowess and passing abilities have been on display throughout the season for Cleveland, and that, along with the defensive end, have made his fit with Jarrett Allen a great one for the Cavaliers. Mobley has played off of others such as Darius Garland, Lauri Markkanen (when healthy) and Kevin Love typically very well, too.

Now, Mobley has hit somewhat of a rough patch recently in the scoring sense, regardless of Garland missing time of late in the past two or weeks, but either way, Mobley’s still made a difference in other areas, especially defensively.

He’s been dynamite on that end of the floor virtually all year for the much-improved Cavs, and with fluidity, shot blocking sense/timing and feel, it’s been on shock to have seen Mobley regularly appear in the “Next Five” in the NBA’s Defensive Player of the Ladder. In the last iteration of it, Mobley was in that spot, as our own Justin Brownlow highlighted.

Mobley was among the players in that “Next Five” in the DPOY ladder’s latest release on Tuesday, too, from NBA.com’s Steve Aschburner, and this go-round, so was Mobley’s Cavaliers teammate, in big Jarrett Allen.

The Mobley-Allen duo has been instrumental for the Cavs defense this season, and it was nice to see them both on the latest DPOY Ladder.

Both Mobley and Allen have been invaluable for the Cavaliers this season, even more so when it comes to the defensive end.

Allen has had a career season offensively, and that’s part of the rationale for him recently being named as James Harden’s All-Star injury replacement, but defensively, Mobley and Allen have often been lights-out for the Wine and Gold.

Now, have they had near the defensive impact of the ladder’s top two in Giannis Antetokounmpo and Mikal Bridges? I wouldn’t go there; it’s still noteworthy that both were recognized for being in the “Next Five” (which is in no particular order), along with Draymond Green, Rudy Gobert, Robert Williams III, and Dejounte Murray, though.

As Aschburner hit on, Mobley and Allen have been among the league leaders in contested shots per game this season, and in that stat leading into Tuesday’s contests (and that holds true after those clearly), they were “tops among duos.”

Individually, Mobley is third in contested shots per game (12.4), and Allen is tied for fourth (11.8), per NBA.com’s hustle data.

Allen has shown progression as a switchable big when needed against perimeter players, even while he’s not earned that “switch big” label just yet; he’s made strides there, anyhow. And in Mobley’s case, even with him needing to improve his defense against more physical bigs in coming years, feasibly by getting stronger, he has done a more than admirable job when needed in switchout situations, and both Allen and Mobley have been impact rim protectors.

As we touched on, Mobley has had 1.7 blocks per game this season, and Allen has had 1.3. Additionally, we’ve seen Mobley have some timely steals throughout games for Cleveland, and even with some inconsistencies offensively of late, Mobley’s defense has held firm and that’s shown how he’s continually affected winning, for the most part.

Even with Cleveland’s past three games, realistically, being underwhelming defensively, for the vast majority of the season to this point, Mobley and Allen have been the reason why Cleveland has conceded the lowest opponent field goal percentage at the rim this season (58.7 percent), per NBA.com’s tracking data.

So, when you combine that with the Cavs being eighth in opponent three-point attempts and opponent three-point shooting, to go with fifth in opponent threes made per contest this season, it’s been an impressive season so far defensively for Cleveland.

Mobley, a rookie who was named to the Rising Stars squad, and the All-Star in Allen, to reiterate, though, have been the anchors and connectors on that end for the Cavaliers, and it was great to see both recognized in the latest DPOY Ladder.