This years’ rookie class is great and it could very well go down as a historic one in NBA history. As everyone knows by now, the Toronto Raptors’ Scottie Barnes edged out the Cleveland Cavaliers‘ Evan Mobley in the closest Rookie of the Year race in 19 years to take home the honors. Barnes won the award by 15 voting points.
Again this rookie class is sensational and it’s no suprise it ended up being a very tight race that Barnes ended up winning. You can argue that the top 3 in Barnes, Mobley and Cade Cunningham of the Detroit Pistons were absolutely deserving, but the voters got it wrong and Mobley was quite frankly robbed in this situation. This isn’t to tear Barnes down, as he was absolutely deserving and here soon will be one of the leagues’ better two-way players, but Mobley got robbed. I just can’t agree with KJG’s Quinn Minnich on that one, who believes Barnes rightfully won the Rookie of the Year.
Mobley was clearly robbed of the ROY award, because of 3 reasons, especially.
It seems what hurt Mobley is a pure case of recency bias and what transpired near the end of the season. The Cavs overcame injuries all year, but they continued to get hit with injuries near the end, including Mobley, who missed five games with an ankle injury. The Cavaliers faded near the end, too, while the Raptors finished strong and eventually passed the Cavs in the standings, as the Cavs ran out of gas.
Still all things considered, when you look at the entire body of work, Mobley should’ve still took home the award.
#1: Mobley was the most consistent rookie all season
Plain and simple, when you look at everyones’ body of work from start to finish, Mobley was the best rookie. You could argue in spurts Barnes was better or that Cunningham even on a bad team in February or March on, however, start to finish, Mobley was the best rookie in the class. For most of the season we were talking about the legitimate possibility of Mobley making an All-NBA Defensive team as a rookie, which is unheard of.
Herb Jones of the New Orleans Pelicans has made a huge defensive impact, but he also had 4 years of college development. Same for Tim Duncan, who was great as a rookie and even made the All-Star team as a rookie. That’s what was so impressive about Mobley, is that he’s a 19-year-old that came into the NBA and had a legitimate argument to make an All-NBA Defensive team. Mobley’s ability as an elite shot blocker, ability to contest and being able to switch out on some of the games’ elite perimeter players puts him in a class of his own.
Mobley on the season averaged 15 points, 8.3 rebounds, 2.5 assists, to go with 1.7 blocks and 0.8 steals, while shooting 25 percent from 3 and 50.8 percent from the field overall. Again, Mobley was special defensively, but he was pretty consistent and very good offensively as well.
Mobley has a post game and it improved as the year went along, and he’s a big-time lob threat, he’s got a mid-range game, a post fade that brings comps to Kevin Garnett, and while on surface his 3-point shot wasn’t great in the early-to-mid part of the season he looks like he’ll make strides as a shooter from the outside.
Many point to Darius Garland‘s meteoric rise this year, as the Cavaliers’ biggest reason for the jump they made, but this jump doesn’t happen without Evan Mobley. Again you can argue Barnes was better at certain points and Cunningham was better from February/March on, but Mobley was the best and most consistent start to finish.