Evan Mobley has found his stride for Cavaliers in recent stretch

Evan Mobley has started off his sophomore season strong for the Cleveland Cavaliers, and has followed up his terrific rookie year in solid fashion.

Through 17 games, Mobley has averaged 15.2 points, 8.4 rebounds and 2.5 assists per contest, and has tacked on 1.4 blocks and 0.9 steals per outing. He took a bit to get rolling offensively it seemed, and has had a handful of underwhelming games here and there, but by and large, the second-year big has lived up to expectations.

Sure, there are tough stretches for him on offense, and Mobley hitting just two three-point shots and attempting only 12 of those looks thus far (a 16.7 percent hit rate) hasn’t been good. Coming into the season, he reportedly worked a heck of a lot on improving in that area, too.

That said, Mobley has been finding his spots to affect games off-ball, he’s gotten some free throws to help him get in-rhythm, and he’s routinely made a sizeable impact defensively. He’s been playing especially well lately as well, and has made a ton of things happen on both ends of the floor for the Cavaliers, and has really found his stride in this latest stretch.

Mobley has found his stride for the Cavaliers in this recent stretch it seems.

In Mobley’s last eight games, he’s had 16.5 points, 10.5 rebounds, 2.9 assists, 0.9 blocks and 0.9 steals per outing. In that span, he’s connected on 61.3 percent of his shot attempts, of which have amounted to 11.6 per contest.

The more he plays, the more his timing as an off-ball player pops, and his chemistry with Darius Garland is improving by the game. It’s been nice to see him start to have more of a two-man game with Donovan Mitchell as well, which can lead to dunks or interior push shots for Mobley.

Also, while there could be more mid-range/mid-post touches in coming games for Mobley, he has made some plays as a situational driver and his ability to convert in transition has jumped out at times from running the floor. For a 6-foot-11 player, one shouldn’t gloss over that part of his skill set, and he routinely makes the logical play in those situations.

There have been some instances where Mobley can turned it over from getting himself caught in compromising positions, and offensively, he’s still a young player that has room to grow on that end in high leverage situations. But, by and large, he’s taken what defenses have been giving him, has found a way to be in advantageous areas to convert his looks efficiently, and more experience playing with Garland and Mitchell will pay dividends.

On the other end of the floor, while he did have some inconsistencies at times when he was out there at the 5 for stretches, or in a couple of games where Jarrett Allen was unavailable, Mobley has still been effective. Fouling is a bit of a concern thus far this season for the youngster, with him still fairly thin, however, that’s something Mobley can clean up, and when he’s in with Allen, that’s something that can be greatly mitigated.

In this recent win streak for the Cavaliers, Mobley’s switchability has also popped, on a positive note, with his length and fluidity leading to productive defensive possessions when needed at times versus Terry Rozier and Dejounte Murray. And Mobley’s length often affects forward shooters and drivers, and for what it’s worth, he’s fourth in the NBA in contested shots per game, per NBA.com’s hustle data.

Of course, one will never discount Mobley’s rim protection and team defensive feel, either, which has been on display a bunch of late as well. His blocks have been down a touch in this recent stretch, but he’s still had three games of multiple blocks in the aforementioned slate of contests, and it’s been encouraging that Mobley has shown improvement with his rebounding positioning, too.

Factoring in both ends, Mobley has seemingly refound his stride for the Cavaliers, and he’s been everywhere for the Wine and Gold in this last three-game winning streak, which has helped the team get back on track after a five-game skid prior to that.

While there are still some hiccups for the young big on occasion, it’s still incredible to see the USC product affect games in a number of ways so consistently, even at 21. Mobley should be able to build on this recent stretch of contests, too.