Aside from the NBA Playoffs, award season is what the public looks forward to after each club competes in 82 games. There is no perfect way to choose the winners, but the results are still significant. Enough hardware, All-NBA selections, or lack thereof, could make the difference in a Hall of Fame ballot.
In the case of All-Defense, there are only 10 spots. As an observer, I only care for the voters honoring three guys: Jrue Holiday, Bam Adebayo and Evan Mobley.
Holiday is the best perimeter defender on the beast of the East (Milwaukee Bucks). He’s made both teams twice in four of the last five years. Holiday will likely get on, but I’ve seen appalling selections while he and others were left out. For example, I offer 2017. The season voters put Danny Green on the Defensive Second Team over Klay Thompson at guard; equally as gagging was Andre Roberson at forward over Jimmy Butler or Paul George.
Adebayo has made the Second Team three seasons straight and his impact on that side is the same. He is the primary reason why the Heat has stellar paint protection. Multiple sportsbooks have him as low as the fourth-highest odds for the Defensive Player of the Year crown.
Mobley is in the same class as Adebayo, Holiday and the other popular candidates for Defensive Player of the Year. Of all the nominees, Evan is the youngest at 21.
As a rookie, Mobley received 13 points for Second Team from voters, the most by any forward who didn’t make the cut. As a sophomore, he came back stronger and sharper defensively.
Evan Mobley has been even better this season defensively for the Cavs, and he should be a lock to make an All-Defensive Team.
He excels in zone or man-to-man coverage. When the backcourt gets beat on the perimeter, and the ball handler dashes towards the cup, Mobley’s help defense often sends a pass back out if a cutter isn’t trailing the rock.
Through 75 games this season, Mobley is sixth in the NBA in total blocks. Only Nic Claxton and Jarren Jackson Jr., at second and third in the stat, are equally as talented at covering the outside.
When matched up with some of the league’s best, #4 did well. In nearly 15 minutes matched up with Miami’s Jimmy Butler through three games, Evan Mobley held him to seven out of 21 shots from the field. Guarding New York’s Julius Randle for 15 minutes through three matches, Evan’s defensive field goal percentage was 40.9% on 22 attempts.
Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid is the matchup Mobley spent the most time defending. Through three games, he shadowed Embiid for 19.9 minutes, allowing 44 points on 60.7% shooting.
Defending Giannis Antetokounmpo and Nikola Jokic gave Mobley trouble, but containing the best big men in the world won’t happen until he adds at least 15 pounds to his frame. But struggling to defend them shouldn’t hurt anyone’s case for All-Defense. Those guys routinely destroy everyone in the league.
So far this season, Evan has spent 21.8% of his time on defense bothering opposing guards. His defensive field goal percentage in that time is 43%.
Mobley’s versatility lets the instructors get creative. Head coach J.B. Bickerstaff experimented with an ultra-small lineup of Darius Garland, Ricky Rubio, Donovan Mitchell, Lamar Stevens and Evan Mobley in Cleveland’s last game in Atlanta on March 28. This five-man unit got only 7.8 minutes together, but such a trial wouldn’t have been attempted without a defensive anchor like Mobley. This lineup allowed only two fastbreak points, but 10 in the interior, while the Cavs logged 25.
A big man who can blow up opposing offenses by contesting close-range shots and stopping the ball outside is a luxury. The Cavaliers have two of those (Jarrett Allen), but sticking with Mobley, as long as Cleveland has his talents, the coaching staff will continue to tinker with lineups to forge a secret weapon.
The Cavaliers’ success through 94% of the season has not gone unnoticed either. A serious indicator that Mobley is a lock to make first or second team is that he’s in the top five in odds at multiple sportsbooks as well.
If there’s one thing I do know, it’s that the wiseguys know.