In his rookie year, Evan Mobley was everything the Cleveland Cavaliers could’ve expected, and then some. Even with him being just 20 years old and in his first year in the NBA, he was able to affect games in a number of ways.
Defensively, his positioning was typically sound, his contests in the paint to shooters and drivers were a constant, his help timing was on-point and he was often comfortable in switchout situations.
On the offensive end, Mobley’s finishing touch, cutting, passing feel and mid-range flashes all were positives, too. It was nice to see Mobley look more in-sync with other bigs and the perimeter players with him as the year wore on as well, and that synergy with teammates will only get better with more experience.
For the season, Mobley had 15.0 points, 8.3 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.7 blocks per contest, and he narrowly missed out on Rookie of the Year honors.
The Toronto Raptors’ Scottie Barnes took home the ROY award for the 2021-22 campaign, but to me, along with our own Corey Casey, Mobley’s consistency and efforts in the Cavaliers’ turnaround should’ve warranted him winning that. I’m not going to marginalize Barnes’ impact, though, and he looks to be a heck of a two-way presence going forward, too.
Anyway, when it comes to Mobley, in relation to next season, I would expect to see him take further strides as an on-ball player offensively, which would be very encouraging for his development.
One should look for Mobley to be more assertive on-ball for the Cavs in Year 2.
Mobley is not a guy that’s going to force anything when he’s in there, and he’s going to let the game come to him. As we touched on, he’s also a more than capable passer for a big.
I’m not necessarily saying that we’re going to see Mobley be a primary playmaker or anything, but he readily showed how he’s a high IQ player when it comes to executing a variety of passes. Whether it was him hitting big-to-big feeds, finding outlets when doubles come, or finding logical skip feeds, Mobley proved to be an impactful secondary playmaker throughout the season, and I’m sure we’ll see that continue moving forward.
As we mentioned, though, one should expect to see Mobley more assertive as an on-ball presence, in the scoring sense, in his second season.
Mobley does need to show improvement as a catch-and-shoot player from three-point range to maximize his offensive potential, as he hit only 25.0 percent from three in Year 1, and only attempted 1.3 deep attempts per outing. So, ideally, some positive signs there, as he did show early on in Year 1, would obviously be meaningful.
But on a positive note, Mobley demonstrated the ability to make things plays at the elbows and high post as a driver at times, and in the mid-post area, he looked composed both with his decision-making when helpers came, and made plays on the baseline.
As a driver, while I’m not saying it’s going to be at the volume of Garland or Sexton (in the event Collin’s back), Mobley for a 7-footer in his first year was impressive.
Next season, I’d think hopefully with him more in-tune playing with Jarrett Allen, Mobley will be able to find gaps opportunistically as well against opposing bigs. And again on the baseline, Mobley’s length and body control should help lead to great looks for him, which we saw in Year 1.
Along with the driving and shot creation from mid-post play, despite there not being a ton of it, there were encouraging flashes from Mobley as a mid-range player, and at times, his use of fadeaways led to in-rhythm looks on pull-ups. His length there enabled him to generate nice angles for shots, and that sort of pull-up play is something we should see more of next season, along with perhaps some fadeaways fairly regularly.
Now, overall, 66.8 percent of Mobley’s made shots were assisted in Year 1, per NBA.com’s shooting data. As we touched on, plenty of Mobley’s attempts and quality look came from cuts, lobs, at times running the floor or from weak side feeds.
However, there were promising shot creation capabilities on display in his first season against opposing bigs, and at times, he was able to take advantage in cross-match situations versus smaller defenders, and finish over the top, draw fouls or make sound passes. That was great to see, too, and reiterated how he’s a high IQ player.
Anyhow, next year, after a full offseason, even after Cleveland hopefully has Sexton back and/or adds maybe a shot creation presence in the draft/trade, we should expect to see Mobley more assertive on-ball in Year 2.
When he was called upon to seemingly take advantage more in that aspect of the game, he often delivered throughout his first year, and going forward, he should be able to build on that. And with his passing willingness, timing and vision, he’ll always be a tough guy to deal with if he is asserting himself consistently on offense, which I believe will play out more as he gains added experience.