If the Cleveland Cavaliers ever want to win a championship with Donovan Mitchell leading the way, they need to trade Evan Mobley. Despite his elite defensive talents, he just doesn’t have the offensive juice to be one of the top-paid players on a title team. Mitchell needs more help from his Cavs co-stars.
In today’s NBA, it’s never been more important for teams to pay the right players. Because if you have too much money on the books, it becomes extremely hard to build out the rest of the roster. And depth is crucial nowadays, too. Mobley makes too much money for his production. Mitchell needs more.
The Cavs need to change their stance on Mobley ASAP.
Cavaliers need to trade Evan Mobley to help Donovan Mitchell
Right now, it sounds like the Cavaliers are hoping to keep their core intact. They want to keep Mitchell, Mobley, and James Harden together, and likely Jarrett Allen, too.
That said, the Cavaliers are projected to be a second-apron team next year. They only need to shed a little bit of money to get under the mark, but that won’t solve their long-term problems.
Mobley makes too much money. Next season, he’s going to make $50.1 million. After that, he has three years left on his contract, all scaling up to the final year, in which he will make $61.2 million.
That’s a bad contract. Mobley doesn’t provide Mitchell and the Cavaliers with enough offensive help to warrant paying him that much money. Not based on the way recent champions have gone.
The New York Knicks just won a title this year because they had an elite offensive infrastructure built around Jalen Brunson. And one of the top guys next to Brunson is Karl-Anthony Towns – an elite offensive big man.
Mobley doesn’t necessarily have to be that talented on that side of the ball, but if the Cavs want to win a championship, he would have to take a significant leap on offense.
Cleveland can’t wait for that. Instead, the Cavs should trade Mobley for smaller pieces that fit better. It would help their financial situation and probably create a more reliable offensive core.
If Mitchell wants to win in Cleveland, he needs more reliable offense around him, especially when it comes to the Cavs’ other max-contract players.
Mobley just doesn’t work as a max guy in Cleveland. The sooner the Cavaliers realize that, the better chance Mitchell will have at winning a title in Cleveland.
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