Cavs Final Report Card: Evan Mobley

Evan Mobley didn’t take the massive leap that many fans hoped for this season. But the fifth-year player did show meaningful improvements throughout the Cleveland Cavaliers’ run to the Eastern Conference Finals. How much is that worth?

All grades are based on our usual expectations for each player.

Regular Season Stats

• 18.2 points
• 9.0 rebounds
• 3.6 assists
• 54.6% FG
• 29.7% 3PT FG
• 60.6% FT

Pathways towards being an MVP candidate are looking slim for Mobley. He was momentarily handed the keys to Cleveland’s 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.

Mobley’s sluggish start to the season was disappointing. It became clear that he doesn’t have a go-to move on offense and was flailing around for most of the ‘ber 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.

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’d 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.

Cleveland still doesn’t know who Mobley can be at his peak. That’s because they haven’t really tried to take him outside of his comfort zone for more than two weeks. There’s value in putting someone in a sink-or-swim position. The Cavs shouldn’t have bailed him out.

Thankfully, the playoffs gave us some valuable insight into Mobley’s ceiling.

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.

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.

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’s a stark contrast from the start of his season, but I’ll take a playoff sample over a few games in October.

For this reason, it can be hard to grade Mobley’s season. He didn’t 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’ll do my best to capture the full picture.

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’t done developing.

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’t afford for that to happen again.

The worst? Mobley fumbled a prime opportunity. The Cavs wanted him to take a step forward, and he couldn’t do it. There’s no guarantee that he’ll be given that chance again. Mobley will have to step up and demand a larger role in the offense. That’s 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.

Grade: B+