Evan Mobley has to produce more in these 2 areas to warrant KG comp

Secondly, while Mobley is probably never going to be Garnett-level on the glass, he can still improve a bit there as he gains more experience, and his frame continues to fill out some.

Mobley did have 9.0 rebounds per game last season, which was a modest improvement from his rookie campaign, and in his last 24 regular season appearances, had 9.3 per contest. His defensive rebounding percentage last season also was better at 22.7 percent, which was encouraging.

Mobley getting stronger last year did help him in the second half of the regular season, and that aided his rebounding positioning, which was nice to see. Unfortunately, though some of the blame for him on the defensive glass in the playoffs was a bit unfounded, there are still instances where Mobley can be in compromising positions there, and that was at times apparent in that loss to the New York Knicks.

Now, to expect Mobley to lead the NBA in rebounding four times, like Kevin Garnett and have a defensive rebounding rate of 26.0 for his career is unrealistic. And some inconsistencies at points there for Mobley have to do with his shot altering as a team defender, as an aside.

However, if Evan Mobley can be more disciplined with his positioning in crucial points of games and hopefully, in the playoffs from here, that’d make him even more impactful on winning going forward. And tutelage in that regard from recent signing Tristan Thompson should only help Mobley there.

Naturally, the KG long-term comps for Mobley will be there. He just has to demonstrate more game-to-game starting this coming season as a shooter and rebounder and build off that to have more of that narrative begin to materialize. The Cavs big man is coming.