This trend is a bit concerning regarding Cavaliers’ Evan Mobley

Throughout this season, I’ve been fairly pleased with the play of Evan Mobley for the Cleveland Cavaliers. Okay, I’d probably say I’ve been mostly pleased, actually, on second thought.

For the season thus far, Mobley has had 15.7 points, 7.1 rebounds and 1.5 blocks and 0.8 steals per outing, and he’s shot 56.2 percent from the field. After he finished as the runner-up for the NBA’s Rookie of the Year Award, and was one of the primary reasons for the Cavaliers’ turnaround last season, Mobley has again proven himself to be a player that can help the team in multiple ways.

Mobley has kept on showing that he’s one of the Cavaliers’ most intelligent players, impactful defenders and he’s often in the right place at the right time on both ends of the floor. For such a young player very early into his second NBA campaign, he’s again proven to be one of the key cogs on a team that looks to be on an upward trajectory.

Sure, there are areas where he has to improve, as Mobley puts himself in compromising positions at times on-ball, leaving exposed to rotating defenders, and he needs to knock down some threes to put his offseason work to use, looking onward. Defensive rebounding positioning is another, too. But, by and large, he’s still played well for the most part, and his high IQ play affects winning, and his defense as a 21-year-old big is rare.

That being said, one area on defense, in this case, is somewhat concerning, involving Mobley’s outlook, in my opinion: fouling issues lately.

Mobley’s fouling is a trend that’s been a bit concerning in recent Cavaliers games.

Now, I have to give Mobley his props for what he’s generally done of late. Even in these past three Cavs games, all three of which have been games the likely should’ve won, in the closing minutes, including in Friday’s 106-101 loss at the Golden State Warriors, Mobley did make his presence felt.

In the last two in Ls at Sacramento and Golden State, for instance, Mobley had 16 points and six rebounds, and 20 points and 13 rebounds (with a whopping eight being offensive), respectively. That was on seven-of-10 and then eight-of-15 shooting, and on free throws, he went two-of-three and then four-of-five. At the Warriors, he had four assists as well, albeit to three turnovers, but his ball movement sense has been on display, regardless.

However, while we know how Mobley is such an integral part of the Cavaliers’ fabric on both ends of the floor, as was mentioned, the fouling at times has been a bit concerning, of late.

In the past eight games, he’s had two instances with four personal fouls, a five-foul game and in Cleveland’s collapse down the stretch at the Clippers on Monday night, he fouled out. On the season, he’s averaged 3.0 personal fouls, as opposed to that being an average of 2.1 last season.

Now, just to put that into perspective, through 25 games played as a rookie, Mobley had three games where he had four fouls, and none with five fouls. Following that point, he had five games in total the rest of the regular season in which he had four-plus fouls, and he appeared in 69 regular season games in his first year, for context.

He’s had 3.4 fouls per outing in the past 10 games, which isn’t a humongous average there, but when he’s playing at the 5 for stretches, it has been more of a concern, it’s seemed at least. At times when he’s not in there with Jarrett Allen, it’s been tougher thus far this season for Mobley to still be his typical shot altering self while fouling minimally on interior contests.

Yes, he’s still a hell of a rim protector, and he’s emerging as one of the game’s best defensive bigs, and his switchability still has been there, which I’ll always hold in the highest esteem. Evan has still been playing at a high level defensively overall, too, and I’m not suggesting otherwise, for the most part. He’s had a block rate of 4.2 percent so far, which is nearly identical to his last season of 4.4 percent, per Basketball Reference, and his closeouts are usually on-point.

However, with the Cavaliers not having Lauri Markkanen from here, as they did as another shot alterer at nearly 7-foot last year, that has put more onus on Mobley for stretches. Granted, Allen has quite the defensive workload still, as well, even with Caris LeVert and others giving max effort.

And as it pertains to Mobley, with him still fairly thin, I personally think it’d behoove J.B. Bickerstaff and company to play Robin Lopez at times a bit more, for some more physicality in spurts. If that means Mobley plays at times at the 3, with Kevin Love at the 4 still for offense, that’s fine.

I just believe for Mobley, and the team in general, some of the reasoning for them having problems closing out games of late could be partly due to fatigue, and fouls piling for Mobley and the team itself as games progress hasn’t helped, either.

Some of the fouls might be a bit questionable, but Bickerstaff could ease Mobley’s defensive workload a bit here and there, and playing Lamar Stevens could aid there as well, for example.

Anyway, the foul totals for the team, and late-game stretch fouls giving opponents easier chances are things Mobley and the Cavaliers need to clean up, and steps taken throughout games can help prevent those problems from resurfacing in coming games. Those are aspects of the game, within the game, I’ll be watching, along with the offensive execution late, where the Cavaliers and Darius Garland need to be more buttoned up.