The Cleveland Cavaliers were dealt yet another tough hand recently, as Jarrett Allen suffered a quad contusion and a fractured left middle finger in Cleveland’s win on Sunday versus the Toronto Raptors. Allen is set to be out indefinitely, and it’s reportedly uncertain if Cleveland will have Allen back by the end of the regular season, which has about a month left.
Allen has been terrific for the Cavaliers this season, and he’ll be missed greatly from here. With him sidelined, that will put Evan Mobley in as Cleveland’s starting 5 on most occasions it appears, which should be more than fine. That could end up being Moses Brown perhaps if he sticks, as he was a 10-day signing on Wednesday night, but we’ll have to see on that front how he meshes; I was a fan of the Brown pickup, either way.
In Mobley’s case, he has often played at the 4 this season, where him and Allen have actually meshed well, to a large degree, and it seems that could very well be the Cavs starting 4-5 duo moving forward, based on how this season has gone.
That said, in the interim, Mobley will likely be playing his more traditional spot, if you will, and in some mismatches against slower 5s, he could really be set up for success on offense. That’s with his fluidity, handle for a big, driving ability against bigs and athleticism.
With Mobley filling in as Cleveland’s starting 5 on Tuesday against the Indiana Pacers, he had 22 points on 8-of-15 shooting, to go with 12 rebounds and three assists. On the other end, he also had a whopping five steals, a block and altered a number of shots.
Now, Mobley’s next potential matchup for stretches could seemingly be Bam Adebayo on Friday, for context, and he’ll feasibly draw Nikola Vucevic some on Saturday, so those are difficult, even for a young player as defensively gifted as Mobley.
With Allen sidelined here, it’s imperative that Mobley is out there for the vast majority of games for the Cavaliers. In that realm, he has to stay out of foul trouble.
Mobley should be quite alright for the Cavs here, provided he stays out of foul trouble.
To reiterate, I’d imagine that Brown will get his share of opportunities during this 10-day, and with the Allen injury, I could very well foresee him receiving a second 10-day. If he fits, perhaps a rest-of-season deal could come from there.
For what it’s worth, he was reportedly already with the Cavaliers before their next game at the Miami Heat on Friday as of Wednesday night per Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com. So I’d think we’ll see some legitimate Brown minutes in that contest, and feasibly on Saturday at the Chicago Bulls. That’s echoing Fedor’s report, too.
But back to the Mobley front, I still would expect him to be even more of a crucial player for the Cavaliers.
And with that in mind, he can’t be dealing with foul trouble much.