The Cleveland Cavaliers just held one of the their most anticipated Media Days in recent memory ahead of a season with immensely high expectations as multiple players, and prominent members of the organization took the podium to field inquiries from various media outlets. Cavs head coach J.B. Bickerstaff was among the many to participate in the line of questioning that took place. One thing is for certain, he continues to remain unabashed in his belief in his team’s potential.
From praising Darius Garland’s growth as a leader to his outright declaration that second-year big man Evan Mobley can become a superstar without becoming the leading scorer or taking the most shots, it’s crystal clear that he truly believes in his team.
If his comments at Cavs Media Day were any indication, his mentality hasn’t shifted one bit.
#Cavs J.B. Bickerstaff on Evan Mobley: "We want him in the Defensive Player of the Year conversation. That is the type of player we know he can be."
— Chris Fedor (@ChrisFedor) September 26, 2022
The Cavs staff has high hopes for Mobley in general, and his defensive efforts last season make him potentially in the Defensive Player of the Year conversation realistic it seems.
Now obviously, it’s one thing for Bickerstaff to talk up his player. It’s an entirely different story for said player to go out there and continually display why his head coach is heaping mounds of praise upon him. In just one season of pro basketball, Mobley has already shown to be quite the disruptive force whether he is patrolling the paint and acting as a rim deterrent or switching out on the perimeter to make life difficult for the opposition.
In fact, the USC product found himself among the league’s elite in numerous categories. Mobley swatted 1.7 shots per game, an average that tied for 7th in the league last season. That was actually the highest average for a rookie since the New York Knicks’ Mitchell Robinson finished the 2018-19 campaign with 2.4 per contest.
Additionally, Mobley completed the year contesting 12.3 shot attempts per game, the third-highest total in the NBA. Combine that with the fact that Mobley somehow managed to foul opposing players on a mind-blowing 2.7 percent of defensive plays which ranked within the 93rd percentile in the NBA among big men, per Cleaning The Glass (subscription required), and it’s easy to see why Bickerstaff has such high hopes for Mobley.
With the Cavs losing a key piece (Lauri Markkanen) of what made their frontcourt so unique in the trade for Donovan Mitchell, Mobley and fellow frontcourt mate Jarrett Allen will be tasked with perhaps shouldering even more of the load defensively considering the size or lack thereof within the backcourt pairing of Garland and Mitchell along with whomever suits up at the small forward position.
With those things in mind, this could provide the second-year big man a monumental opportunity to showcase just how impactful his hybrid brand of defense can be during the 2022-23 campaign.
In it’s illustrious 53-year history, the Cavaliers have never had a single player win the Defensive Player of the Year award but Mobley may represent their best chance at doing so.
If he can find some way to further elevate his level of play on that end of the court, he will likely render himself impossible to leave off the ballot for the award. Time will tell.