NBA All-Star: Grades for Cavs in Rising Stars Challenge

The Cleveland Cavaliers are well-represented at NBA All-Star Weekend, which is fitting because Cleveland is serving as host city. On “All-Star Friday” to kick things off, Evan Mobley and Isaac Okoro competed with Team Barry in the Clorox Rising Stars Challenge.

We discussed yesterday in our preview of the event how Mobley and Okoro could be part of the most devastating defensive lineup among the four young squads, and that played out on Friday as both played key roles in Team Barry winning both of their games and taking home the trophy.

Evan Mobley and Isaac Okoro were on the championship team in the NBA’s Rising Stars Challenge. What grade did they earn on All-Star Friday Night?

The first game was played against Team Payton, drafted by Hall of Fame guard Gary Payton, and led by LaMelo Ball and Scottie Barnes. After a Jae’Sean Tate layup in traffic won the game (played to 50 points via an “Elam Ending”) the squad moved on to the final. There they triumphed over Team Isiah 25-20, winning on a Franz Wagner free throw.

Both of the Cavs players competed with the support of their real-life teammates, who showed up to root for the youngsters (although who are we kidding – they are all youngsters):

How did the Cavs conduct themselves on Friday night, playing alongside the cream of the crop when it comes to young players? Let’s hand out grades for both players on All-Star Friday.

Isaac Okoro

First let’s look at the older of the two, second-year wing Isaac Okoro. He is not much of a scoring threat at this point in his career, averaging just nine points per game despite playing 28.8 minutes per game. On a Rising Stars team with Mobley and Cade Cunningham running the show, his offensive role was not much greater than it is with the Cavs.

To his credit, Okoro was part of the team’s closing five against Team Payton in the first game, a major reason LaMelo Ball was held to just eight points. He had just one steal, but frequently disrupted the loose plays the team was running and forced a reset. In the second game it was more of the same, and Tyrese Haliburton was scoreless in the final – not solely as a result of Okoro, as Jae’Sean Tate was everywhere defensively, but he was one of the few players digging in defensively.

On offense it was a different story, as Okoro shot just 3-of-8 from the field for six total points across the two games, and added a tough late turnover that could have lost the game for Team Barry in the semifinal. He did have one smooth highlight play, a transition Euro Step into a layup that Cavs fans hope they see more of this season:

Overall it was a mixed bag for Okoro, which makes sense to anyone who has watched him through 1.5 seasons of his career thus far.

Grade: C+

Evan Mobley

If Okoro was merely ok, Evan Mobley was awesome. With his face plastered all over the marketing for the event and All-Star Weekend itself, not only as the Rookie of the Year front-runner but as the hometown kid, Mobley did not disappoint in his play in either game of the Rising Stars Challenge.

In the semifinal win he was incredibly active, tying Cunningham for a game-high 13 points to go along with eight rebounds. You could tell Cunningham was excited about working with a real lob threat in pick-and-roll (he has pick-and-pop bigs with him in Detroit, or ground-based Isaiah Stewart) and he sought Mobley out as often as he could. It was also evident that Cade doesn’t yet have the lob timing down in the way Darius Garland does.

The two-man game with Mobley and Cunningham was working so well that Team Payton shifted to shut it down, opening up opportunities for cuts behind them. The Team Barry offense was humming, and the No. 1 and No. 3 picks in last summer’s draft were unstoppable.

In between the two rounds was the “Clutch Challenge” where two-man teams alternated shots to hit from five different spots, each the location of an iconic postseason shot (although thankfully not “The Shot”). Mobley and his teammate Josh Giddey hit their first four shots on the first try, and eventually Mobley banked in the logo shot. They were beat out by another team, but Mobley’s versatility in hitting from outside was on display.

It was more of the same in the Final when Mobley again led his squad in points (three-way tie at five) and rebounds, and his 11 total rebounds led the entire competition. His most impressive moment was a sidestep 3-pointer that looked like something Stephen Curry would unleash on his enemies; it was sublime seeing it from the seven-foot Mobley.

In the end Mobley would have been a deserving choice for MVP, but his teammate Cunningham was equally worthy. The hometown crowd chanted for Mobley, showing their support for the league’s best rookie and one of its true Rising Stars.

Grade: A+