3 reasons why Cavs’ Evan Mobley was robbed of the Rookie of the Year

#3: The end-of-season shouldn’t have been enough to dethrone Mobley

For most of the year most thought this rookie race was going to come down to Mobley versus Barnes. And at one point it looked like a pretty good bet that Mobley would’ve won Rookie of the Year. It sure seems like the last month of the season Barnes covered a ton of ground and ultimately just got by Mobley.

It certainly appears the voters heavily factored in the way the Cavs and Raptors ended the regular season. In the month of March/April of the regular season the Cavaliers faded and went 8-13 and lost to a number of teams they should’ve beat, while the Raptors surged and went 15-7.

It just wasn’t the Cavaliers the Raptors overtook, as they were able to overtake the Chicago Bulls and Brooklyn Nets as well. Perhaps if the Raptors were still a play-in team instead of a top-5 seed, Mobley might have been able to hang on. Not only that, but the Cavs going from a top-4 seed to 8 to end the regular season resonated with voters.

Still, ending up 4 games better than the Cavs and being the 5 seed versus 8 seed still probably shouldn’t have been enough to overtake Mobley for Barnes. I can understand why they went Barnes’ way, but when you look at the overall body of work from an individual standpoint, all the weaknesses Mobley covered up, the huge impact Mobley made on both sides of the ball and the way Mobley affected winning should done the job.

All of that should’ve still equated to Mobley winning Rookie of the Year in what looks like a historic draft class.