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.
#2: Mobley is more valuable to the Cavs than other rookies
Evan Mobley is more valuable, was more important to the Cavaliers, and impacted winning more and meant more to the Cavs than any other rookie meant to their team. The Cavs have built one of the better young cores in the league in Garland, Mobley and Jarrett Allen. I believe Garland, who is already a star, and Mobley, are future superstars. These three were able to lead the Cavs to a 44-win season, but the Cavaliers still have some flaws and Koby Altman knows they aren’t a finished project and he still has to finish building out the rest of the roster.
The Cavs don’t have a ton of depth, as they need to add more shooting, and another playmaking guard who can create on the perimeter, so everything isn’t all on Garland and a two-way wing that can score. Evan Mobley is a huge reason how the Cavs for most of the season were a top-3 defensive team and the Wine and Gold could defensively get away with Lauri Markkanen playing the 3. No question, Jarrett Allen completes it, as he improved his lateral quickness from a year ago to the point where he could defend guys out on switches really well. Still, Mobley is the gravitational force that makes it all work.
Garland is the Cavs’ most valuable player, but Mobley is right behind him as the Cavs’ next most important player. Mobley was the second-most important player on a team that won 44 games. Even offensively, Mobley was really good and made a major impact, whereas Barnes is surrounded with a bunch of good defenders and shooting around him.
This isn’t to take away from Scottie Barnes at all, as he’s a huge reason the Raptors got to where they got to, and they made it tough on the Philadelphia 76ers in the first round and he was absolutely deserving of the award. I understand why voters looked at the way the end of the season went and looked at Barnes’ versatility being able to play multiple positions and what he did as a playmaker, I just don’t think it should’ve been enough to overtake Mobley.
As good of a job J.B Bickerstaff has done in helping turning this around and starting a culture, he isn’t the caliber of coach or the creative mind that a Nick Nurse is. The Raptors are just a more established team from the Cavaliers. The Raptors still have key core veteran All-Star pieces left over from their championship team and guys that were a part of other Raptor playoff runs in Fred VanVleet, OG Anunoby, and Pascal Siakam.
Barnes is surrounded with more shooting and a bunch of good defenders, and again this isn’t to discredit Barnes. The Raptors absolutely nailed that pick and more. Barnes I believe will be one of the better two-way players in the game and has raised the Raptors’ ceiling for the forseeable future. I just think Mobley, all-in-all, is more valuable to the Cavs success than the Raptors’ success this 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.