The Cleveland Cavaliers are a team that has shocked many this season with the third-best record in the Eastern Conference at 13-8. After hitting the free agent lottery by trading for All-Star guard Donovan Mitchell this past offseason, the Cavaliers have taken their “underdog mentality” and transformed into a dominant team.
A key piece for this Cavs team’s production, however, has come from second-year player Evan Mobley. The team wanted to get Mobley more involved this season, and the coaching staff has even said they see Hall-of-Fame potential within Mobley.
When Mobley was asked about his offensive growth per The Athletic, he said;
“You definitely want to get better every single time and get more uses for sure. So I was expecting that.”
So far this season, Mobley has a total of seven double-doubles and has taken his offensive game up a notch shooting a career-high 54.5 percent from the field. With each game, Mobley continues to improve from the previous one, and his teammates are all for it.
When asked about how it has been to play with Mobley, Cavaliers point guard Darius Garland stated;
“It’s crazy ’cause he’s 21 like he hasn’t really just got all his tools together. I mean, sometimes it still looks like he’s trying to get used to his seven-foot size out there. I mean, he’s really a unicorn, like there’s not a lot of people like him on this planet, and it’s cool to just have him as a teammate for sure.”
Mitchell also spoke on Mobley’s noticeable improvement this season, saying;
“I’ve never seen a young guy on a nightly basis, not knowing if it’s going to be offense or defense or show up on the stat sheet, but understanding it and not complain, that’s huge,” Mitchell continued, “that’s not typical for a second-year player who should have been the Rookie of the Year last year. Like, typically, you come into your second year expecting to be that guy, and he’s understanding that the role is going to change night to night — damn near triple-double with blocks some nights, holding down the defensive end when Jarrett Allen is out, when J.A. is in, being able to be there for us on the offensive end. I’ve never seen that out of a young guy. That’s a huge credit to him. And him as a person as well.”
Cavaliers coach J.B. Bickerstaff praised Mobley for stepping out on the court and focusing on the one thing that matters, winning instead of hunting for shots and being a player that “tried to get his stats as a rookie.”
Mobley is definitely a future star in this League, and it seems like he’s made a true home within the Cavaliers organization. SLAM can’t wait to see what the rest of this season has in store for Mobley and the resurged Cavs.
