Evan Mobley is enjoying a career high in points per game during the 2025-26 season while the Cleveland Cavaliers sit in the upper echelon of the Eastern Conference. Both of those things have largely been accomplished without Darius Garland. Brian Windhorst remains unimpressed.
The reporter appeared on ESPN Cleveland to discuss the Cavaliers and Mobley. Neither of the two got a glowing review from the longtime figure of the sports media giant.
Windhorst said, "The way they're playing offense, I really don't like. ... Evan Mobley, now, I guess his point scoring is up. I guess, in theory, you could say he's doing better offensively. ... I really don't like the way he's playing offensively. He's shooting, in my view, way too many shots, way too many threes."
It is worth noting the comments and assessment were made before Garland made his season debut. Even so, it is not totally irrelevant and dated considering the Cavaliers star guard left the matchup against the Miami Heat with a toe injury. Cleveland has a sample size of what the offensive attack looks like with Mobley and without Garland. For Windhorst, it is a bad one.
Evan Mobley's growing pains should be par for the course in Cleveland
If Garland is forced to miss time due to his most recent ailment, or any further injury struggles in general, it will be chalked up to more of the persistent adversity that Cleveland has faced thus far. With adversity comes opportunity, and that is how Mobley should be treating it.
The Cavaliers star expressed just how much he needed to step up in absence of Garland, and Max Strus, before the start of the season. It was never going to be perfect, but it was the right approach to the situation.
To Windhorst's point, Mobley is indeed attempting a career high from beyond the arc. The Cavaliers big man has hoisted 5.0 shots up per night from deep to this point of the campaign. Mobley is landing those in the bottom of the basket at a 34.5 percent clip.
That is not the best mark of his career. It is right in the middle of the pack for his five seasons in the NBA.
Mobley's true shooting percentage is currently the second worst of his time in the league. 56.4 percent is not an inspiring figure.
However, the point here would be that Mobley is trying to figure out where he can expand his offensive arsenal to and what can work for him. The dip in production should have always been something that was predictable with that kind of experimentation.
As the season marches on, those figures should round back into form. Once there is more comfort and understanding with what works, coupled with further development overall, Mobley will be just fine. Sounding the panic alarm on a young player trying to grow his game greatly misses the point.