Evan Mobley returned to the Cleveland Cavaliers ahead of the 2025-26 NBA season with an incredible rush of expectations and hype. In the (very) early parts of the new campaign, the star big man just has not met the loftiest of those predictions in the slightest.
Many wanted to see Mobley make the leap to become the Cavaliers' best player for the championship formula in Cleveland to really work. There is still enough time for that to potentially be the case by year's end.
However, what is quickly becoming a distant afterthought were the dreams and aspirations of Mobley pushing himself into the MVP conversation. It was something members of the media had dreamed of. Likewise, that is where Mobley's trainer, Olin Simplis, set the bar for him.
"My goal for Evan is for him to be in the MVP conversation every year," Simplis told Mark Medina in an interview. "Is he definitely going to be an MVP? No. But he’s so dynamic and he does so many different great things. There is no reason his name shouldn’t be mentioned."
Evan Mobley's MVP breakout hasn’t arrived for the Cavaliers just yet
Mobley, himself, has not looked the part a player who can push for basketball's top individual award . His numbers to start the 2025-26 season look quite comparable to last year. However, the lofty goal of him being an MVP always had more to do with the field than it did with him.
The talents of the Cavaliers big man are undeniable, and there should be a healthy expectation of eventually seeing his numbers go up, especially when Darius Garland is back to facilitate offense for him.
However, nothing short of a monstrous leap would have been good enough to get him into MVP conversations. That kind of upward trajectory in one season was never a safe bet, for Mobley anyways.
A rival rising star who has indeed looked the part of ascending to the MVP level has been Victor Wembanyama. The San Antonio Spurs are off to a great start in 2025-26, and a lot of it has come on the back of the dominant performances from their French phenom.
Adding Wembanyama to a race that already included Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Nikola Jokic, Luka Doncic, and Giannis Antetokounmpo makes an already stacked field even more difficult to penetrate. MobVP, or whatever the catchy moniker would have been for the 24-year-old, always felt a touch premature, and that feeling has only grown.