Cavs’ Evan Mobley ranks sixth on wildly inconsistent PF list
Cavs’ Evan Mobley ranks 6th on PF list: Was Mobley properly ranked?
Let’s come to the most important question for this ranking of power forwards. Is Evan Mobley actually the sixth-best power forward in the entire NBA already as a second-year player? Let’s look at some subjective and objective criteria.
First, Evan Mobley had a +1.0 Estimated Plus-Minus last season, which would place him much further down the list than sixth. It ranked below even Lauri Markkanen, who came in at +1.2. Other all-in-one stats had Mobley ranked as a negative player overall (Raptor) or again midly positive (Box Plus-Minus). Those are noisy, but Mobley wasn’t anywhere close to a top-10 power forward as a rookie in terms of his overall two-way impact.
This also isn’t a ranking of players for how they performed last season; it’s a look ahead to how these players will perform in this upcoming season. Mobley should improve, and his defensive ceiling is as high as they come while his offensive skillset has plenty of room to grow. But is sixth too high?
It probably is, but just barely. All five players ranked above him deserve to be: Giannis Antetokounmpo, Anthony Davis, Karl-Anthony Towns, Zion Williamson and Pascal Siakam (their order, not mine). Draymond Green at least deserves to be above him as well. After that, however, there isn’t another player screaming to leapfrog him. Scottie Barnes and Jaren Jackson Jr. are in his class of player, but I would put Mobley over both.
John Collins and Kristaps Porginzis both have a case to be above him too, but I think it’s fine to think Mobley will be slightly better this year if the offense takes enough of a step forward; if he is at the same level as last year, however, he should be in the late teens. His ranking has to bake in a lot of projection, and that’s obviously hard to quantify.
Next. Cavs should try to trade Collin Sexton for one of these wings. dark
The final verdict? Evan Mobley was essentially ranked correctly, as he would land seventh on my list of power forwards, but it’s close and there is a group right behind him that could reasonably be ranked higher. On this somewhat wacky, wildly inconsistent list of pseudo-power forwards, Mobley is clearly among the very best already and rising fast.