Evan Mobley Is Ready To Explode
Evan Mobley is one of my favorite players in the NBA. And the Cavs just gave him the keys to the franchise after the Donovan Mitchell trade.
I’ve been thinking about the Donovan Mitchell trade a lot recently. Not only is it the only notable thing to talk about right now, the ramifications of it are fascinating. One of those is Evan Mobley, who, in my mind, is the true winner of this deal. Here’s why one of my favorite players, a generational talent in the making, will explode this season.
Duncanesque
Tim Duncan is the most underrated player of all time, and it’s not even close. People don’t seem to understand just how perfect his career was. There aren’t any blemishes on his career, save the 2013 Finals. But, his early title runs with a barren Spurs lineup all but make up for that.
Why am I bringing up a Hall of Famer? Well, it’s because Duncan and Mobley are just so damn alike. Is that blasphemous to say? Maybe a little. But I’m not saying that lightly…at all. It’s hard to imagine a player like Duncan in the league again. And I’m not saying that Mobley will have the same career path. The odds of that happening are astronomically low.
But, let’s think for a moment. Both Mobley and Duncan are quiet and reserved. They’re both defensively gifted, mobile bigs who seem years ahead of everyone else in terms of their talent level. Both can shoot, pass, and anchor their respective franchises. Strip all of the greatness from Duncan, and you get a player eerily similar to Evan Mobley.
Duncan was drafted into the perfect situation, with the Spurs becoming contenders almost immediately after he joined them. Sound a little familiar?
I know it’s hard to imagine. Tim Duncan is immortal. And icon. And one of the ten greatest players to ever play the game (#wiltchamberlainsucks). That’s why it’s impressive that I’m even mentioning Mobley, a rookie, in the same sentence as him.
It’s impossible to predict a player’s career. I can’t see ten-fifteen years in the future. I can’t foresee what Mobley does next, no matter how highly I think of him. But, from what we know right now, calling him Duncanesque isn’t that crazy. I think.
Rookie Tease
What did Evan Mobley do as a rookie that was so special? Well, everything, to put it simply. We haven’t seen a rookie be as impactful as Mobley without scoring the ball at a high volume. He completely subverted my expectations of what he could do. He was this everchanging defensive nightmare.
Quick, opposing guards couldn’t get around him on the perimeter. Pick-and-rolls died quickly in his presence. His awareness was off the charts. And it wasn’t just in flashes, either. Mobley was doing this stuff all the time. Rookies aren’t supposed to be this aware or good defensively. It takes thousands of minutes and plays for that to happen. But not for Mobley.
Cleveland’s defense will be anchored for the next decade. The combination of Allen and Mobley is unfair. Mobley has what I like to call the “Rudy Gobert effect.” Avoiding him altogether is easier than going against him.
Offensively, Mobley wasn’t a great scorer, but he did everything else well. He had soft hands, making tough shovel passes in traffic from Garland and Rubio look trivial. Mobley’s ball-handling and passing were also impressive. He was involved in a lot of handoff actions – kind of like how the Celtics use Robert Williams.
Improving his mid-range jumper would make him unstoppable since he could just blow by you if you crowded him too much. It’s an amount of skill that’s unfathomable for a rookie. And a player who somehow fell to the third overall pick (good job, Houston).
Here’s the best way to describe Mobley’s rookie season. It was a tease, a preamble to what we should expect for the next decade. Us NBA fans are like Jordan Belfort the day before the Steve Madden IPO opened. We should all be equally scared and excited.
(STEEEEEEVE MAHHHDEEN)
Improving Around The Edges
All Evan Mobley can do to get better is bulk up. That was the only concern with Mobley coming out of USC. How could he handle the physicality of the NBA? And it was clear at times that Mobley was overwhelmed offensively. He couldn’t just move defenders out of the way in the post.
Last season, Mobley attempted 8.7 shots per game in the paint. However, 3.8 of them were outside of the restricted area. Mobley shot just 38% from the field in that area. When he wasn’t right under the rim, Mobley didn’t have the strength or the skillset to score effectively.
Instead, he had to settle for awkward, out-of-control flip shots. That, combined with an inconsistent outside jumper, meant Mobley struggled to make a difference in the scoring column. To take his game to the next step, he has to improve offensively.
And he’s in a great position to do so. Cleveland’s new backcourt of Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland will provide Mobley will endless opportunities. That, combined with his IQ and athleticism, should lead to a jump in production in 2023. The cherry on top would be a jump shot he could rely on more often, but I’ll keep my expectations tabled for now.
If Mobley can do that, then there’s really no telling what his ceiling in the NBA can or should be. He would be a Kevin Garnett-like force with his shooting, athleticism, and passing. Speaking of Garnett…
Garnettesque
Ok. Now things are getting out of hand. Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett? That’s just too much. I would agree with you, but I can’t help myself. This time, I’m not talking about how similar Mobley and Garnett are, even if they are.
No. I’m talking about what the two mean to a franchise. Garnett wasted his prime in Minnesota, a team who lost him five first-round picks after trying to slide an under-the-table agreement with Joe Smith. Finally, Garnett went to the Celtics. And that’s where his value really showed. Not on a crappy team, but on a contending one.
Why did the Celtics get Kevin Garnett? Because they needed an anchor. No offense to Paul Pierce or Ray Allen, but those guys worked best as complementary pieces. Sure, Paul Pierce was the main threat on offense, but Garnet was the motor for those teams. Opposing teams stopped trying to shoot during dead balls because Garnett, and soon thereafter his teammates, would just block the shots.
Now, Evan Mobley is nowhere near as crazy as Kevin Garnett. But, the way the Cavs are using him is just like how the Celtics used Garnett. Mobley is the centerpiece, the Sun of the solar system. Everything around him is there to help him, the planets, the comets, the moons, etc.
Getting Donovan Mitchell is a great start, but Cleveland has a lot more work to do. It’s hard to say what this young, up-and-coming Cavs team will accomplish in the future. But I do know one thing for sure.
Evan Mobley and the Cavs are going to be good for a long, long time in the Eastern Conference.
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