Evan Mobley didn\u2019t take the massive leap that many fans hoped for this season. But the fifth-year player did show meaningful improvements throughout the Cleveland Cavaliers\u2019 run to the Eastern Conference Finals. How much is that worth?<\/p>\n
All grades are based on our usual expectations for each player.<\/p>\n
18.2 points9.0 rebounds3.6 assists54.6% FG29.7% 3PT FG60.6% FT<\/p>\n
Pathways towards being an MVP candidate are looking slim for Mobley. He was momentarily handed the keys to Cleveland\u2019s offense at the start of the season and immediately got pulled over. Kenny Atkinson had no choice but to put Donovan Mitchell back in charge as Mobley nearly drove the team off the road with plummeting efficiency.<\/p>\n
Mobley\u2019s sluggish start to the season was disappointing. It became clear that he doesn\u2019t have a go-to move on offense and was flailing around for most of the \u2018ber months. This led to the Cavs cutting that experiment short and eventually going all-in on salvaging the season by trading for James Harden. The Cavs had no interest in punting away any more wins while waiting for Darius Garland to get healthy or Mobley to figure it out.<\/p>\n
The Cavs put Mobley back into a box. That is to say, they turned him back into being a play-finisher rather than a play-creator. That caused his efficiency to skyrocket back to where you\u2019d expect as he led the NBA in dunks by the end of the season. But these are short-term wins at the cost of long-term answers, if you ask me.<\/p>\n
Cleveland still doesn\u2019t know who Mobley can be at his peak. That\u2019s because they haven\u2019t really tried to take him outside of his comfort zone for more than two weeks. There\u2019s value in putting someone in a sink-or-swim position. The Cavs shouldn\u2019t have bailed him out.<\/p>\n
Thankfully, the playoffs gave us some valuable insight into Mobley\u2019s ceiling.<\/p>\n
The Cavs made it all the way to the Eastern Conference Finals. No one man is responsible for that. But, for the first time in his career, Mobley was arguably the best playoff performer in a Cavalier uniform.<\/p>\n
Mobley was a defensive force in the first two rounds, averaging 4.3 stocks per game against the Detroit Pistons and providing elite resistance at the rim versus Toronto. Meanwhile, he turned in some clutch offensive performances, putting up 21 points, 12 rebounds, and 6 assists in Game 7 in Detroit.<\/p>\n
Watching Mobley confidently bury clutch shots in the playoffs was an eye-opener. Maybe there is something left in his game to uncover after all. That\u2019s a stark contrast from the start of his season, but I\u2019ll take a playoff sample over a few games in October.<\/p>\n
For this reason, it can be hard to grade Mobley\u2019s season. He didn\u2019t meet expectations for most of the year. And, even his exciting postseason was met with a bitter ending as the New York Knicks ran him out of the gym. This is really a mixed bag that can offer drastically different conclusions depending on which stretch of the season you want to focus on. I\u2019ll do my best to capture the full picture.<\/p>\n
The good? Mobley showed out in the playoffs and gave us hope that he can still take his game to another level. Some of his shot creation and playmaking, particularly when operating in five-out lineups, make me think Mobley isn\u2019t done developing.<\/p>\n
The bad? His jumper totally abandoned him for most of the season. He shot below 30% from deep and even struggled to knock down free throws. He can\u2019t afford for that to happen again.<\/p>\n
The worst? Mobley fumbled a prime opportunity. The Cavs wanted him to take a step forward, and he couldn\u2019t do it. There\u2019s no guarantee that he\u2019ll be given that chance again. Mobley will have to step up and demand a larger role in the offense. That\u2019s something he can only do by proving it on the court. Next season will be pivotal in determining what kind of player Mobley wants to be.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Evan Mobley didn\u2019t take the massive leap that many fans hoped for this season. But the fifth-year player…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":759568,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,115848,352401,590,85],"class_list":["post-759567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cavs-analysis","tag-cavs-player-grades","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/759567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=759567"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/759567\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/759568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=759567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=759567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=759567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}