Could Cavs play Mobley at the 3? It’s so crazy it just might work

Could Cavs play Mobley at the 3? Offense

The biggest concern about playing Evan Mobley at small forward is the offense, and specifically the floor-spacing. Mobley’s calling card as a rookie was his defense, which was historically good for a teenage rookie. What was a bit more raw was his offensive game, although he nonetheless averaged 15 points per game.

Mobley’s shooting was very shaky, as he hit only 25 percent of his 1.3 3-point attempts per game last season. That didn’t exactly improve as the season went on, either; after a strong December hitting 35.7 percent of his outside shots, he shot 22.2 percent or worse in each of the next three months before going just 1-of-4 in April to close out the year.

Cleaning the Glass estimates that Mobley played less than 1 percent of his minutes at small forward, and the team scored just 102.3 points per possession in that tiny sample size.

Yet what all of this ignores is that in playing Mobley at the 3, the Cavs would almost certainly by playing Kevin Love at the 4. Suddenly the Cavs are accomplishing exactly what they set out to do last season by starting Lauri Markkanen at the 3. Love provides the spacing that Mobley does not, and honestly that Markkanen did not last season; he is a different level of shooter, by far the best frontcourt shooter on the team.

Put Love and his 39.2 percent from deep on the court and he helps to lift defenders out of the paint. A guard can run pick-and-roll or pick-and-pop with three different bigs, all with different strengths and levels of versatility. It’s still not a group that will be bombing away, but Love’s shooting gives the Cavs a similar net shooting level from last year’s frontcourt.