Through three seasons, Evan Mobley has found himself at the intersection of incredibly good and not good enough. The third pick in the 2021 Draft, Mobley has surpassed just about every reasonable expectation for the Cleveland Cavaliers—he finished third in Defensive Player of the Year voting in 2023 and then was even better last year. The list of players with his athleticism, defensive know-how and offensive smoothness is exceedingly small; there are, at most, 15 players who the Cavs would trade him for.. He’s an integral part of the Cleveland Cavaliers’ success now and will be a franchise cornerstone for years to come.
So why are the Cavs better without him?
Last season, the Cavs were nearly three points per 100 possessions better without Mobley. Of their six best, frequently used lineups, he’s in only one. With Mobley on the court, the Cavs shoot fewer threes and draw fewer fouls; they commit more turnovers and grab fewer rebounds. For a more intuitive example, the Cavs’ best stretch of a season—a rip-roaring 22-4 run over the winter—largely happened while Mobley was recovering from a sprained ankle. On any given possession, Mobley looked less like a budding NBA superstar and more like a kid following his parents around a grocery store—he’s only tagging along and standing in the corner because he wasn’t allowed to stay in the car.
In this sense, Mobley is a victim of his own talent: he’s too valuable to sit on the bench, but his current role is a poor expression of his value. Although Mobley has the size and skillset of a center, the presence of All-Star big man Jarrett Allen relegates Mobley to the perimeter. Sure, Mobley is a good pick-and-roll screener and interior scoring threat, it’s just that Allen is a little better. As such, Mobley transforms from a uniquely gifted center into a limited, underskilled forward.
Whereas the top of the East last year was filled with multidimensional power forwards (Jayson Tatum, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Julius Randle, Pascal Siakam and Paolo Banchero) Mobley packs in a smaller bag. More than his should-be peers, Mobley is at mercy of others—he shoots mainly when the circumstances allow. He needs his teammates to deliver the ball in favorable spots or for the defense to be preoccupied elsewhere. Tellingly, most of his shots came off of cuts and over 75 percent of his shots were assisted. In a league full of hunters, he’s a gatherer.
During last year’s playoffs, though, Mobley flashed glimpses of the apex version of himself. With Allen sidelined by a cracked rib, Mobley operated as Cleveland’s lone big in their second round series against the Boston Celtics. Surrounded by the kind of shooting that his presence usually precludes, he put together arguably the best stretch of his career. Over the five-game series, Mobley averaged 21.4 points and 9.4 rebounds per game and shot 62.7 percent from the floor.
In Game 5, Mobley hung 33 points on Boston, repeatedly beating different Celtics in different ways. Against Luke Kornet, Mobley leaned on his speed, forcing Kornet to retreat by repeatedly attacking his front foot off the dribble. When Jayson Tatum or one of Boston’s wings switched onto Mobley, he simply popped the ball over the top of their head. After setting screens, he alternately rolled and slipped and popped.
This is Mobley’s promise: he finds space. His limbs are long and he moves them with an uncommon grace, allowing him to slide into defensive blindspots, with or without the ball. He’s more functional than the average big—he can dribble off the catch and shoot off the dribble; when he touches the ball, he can be a conjunction, connecting the various pieces of the Cavs’ offense, rather than purely offering punctuation.
While this all-around competence is laudable, Cleveland’s immediate future hinges on whether Mobley can become more specialized. With Cleveland’s core four of Donovan Mitchell, Darius Garland, Mobley and Allen locked up for the next few years, the Cavs must work out internal solutions to their stilted offense; there’s no point in Poindexterly positing that Mobley becomes a more prolific interior scorer without Allen, because neither he nor Allen are going anywhere.
The Cavs have the talent to challenge the East’s Acela Corridor hegemony, as long as they find the way to harness that talent. Accordingly, Mobley must mold his game to his circumstance. If he becomes a more punishing post-up player, he can power through the cramped spacing to create buckets; by honing his passing, he can remove some of the friction that comes with operating in close quarters. Most obvious, Mobley could enable the Cavs to run a more standard offense by becoming a reliable three-point shooter. It doesn’t matter how or where he grows his game; it just matters that he does.
At this point, Mobley can’t just be a blob of limitless potential. It’s time for him to shape up.
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