Evan Mobley knows what you want him to do. I promise you, Evan Mobley knows. There has been so much handwringing about Mobley and his failure to develop a three-point shot. The Cleveland Cavaliers had massive success for nearly two months by surrounding Donovan Mitchell and Jarrett Allen with shooters; while the team has consistently won since Mobley’s return, most of the talk about the Cavs centers around the broken-jigsaw fit of having two non-shooting bigs in the starting lineup. It’s a fair conversation to have, but it also doesn’t paint the whole picture.
There is some great Basketball Thinking here, even the comments are sharp and insightful. Mobley is not just playing in a phone booth - developing his offensive skills will also depend on improved team play. Coaches, offenses, and players have to get better at using the skills he has already. Mobley should can improve his post game right now - lots of non-distance shooters have go-to moves within ten feet of the rim. Siakam's spin moves, Camby's second effort, Zbo's footwork, McHale's pivot/reverse sweep, even Bird's slippery baseline pumpfakes and double-clutch finishes could fit in Evan's bag. Donovan and Garland need to find Mobley earlier in the shot clock and on the move. Bickerstaff could insert more switches and stunts to cause mismatches.
My one prediction is Cleveland finishes one game ahead of Milwaukee, but I'd love to see Jarrett and Mobley matched against Giannis and Lopez, and/or Tatum and Porzingas in the playoffs. Low post heaven!
Yeah, Mobley needs more fluidity in the post for sure. I do think he's gotten better, but it's far from a strength. I'm not sure that the team can afford to give him much room to experiment at this point in the season, unfortunately; that #2 seed is mighty tasty.
I’m a fanatic Cavs fan and subscribed for this piece, which did not disappoint! Thanks!
A couple of observations though-
—Mobley isn’t just a bad shooter from 3, he’s bad from anywhere outside of 3 feet. He has no hook, no turnaround, no post moves basically. His shooting percentages look good because he dunks a lot. Over 40% of his made field goals are dunks! That must be historically high for a significant player.
—another Cavs fan concern you didn’t touch on was Garland overdribbling and slowing down the offense. The offense with Garland out and Mitchell taking more of a PG role just looked much more fluid, with more ball movement and open three point attempts. More to the point, that offense was blowing people out in a way the Cavs seem to have stopped doing recently.
—the Cavs may have even more flexibility than you note here. In particular, the undrafted rookie PG Craig Porter was looking absolutely fantastic earlier this year, but it appears the coaching staff decided they didn’t have the minutes available to find a consistent role for him this year.
Anyway, you should certainly do an off season follow up after we see what this squad can do in the playoffs, as I think the Cavs face some of the most interesting roster construction choices in the league going into next year!
1) Agreed. I tried to address that by talking about how he's not settling anymore for those half-hooks that aren't all that successful, but could've been more explicit for sure.
2) Yeah, I originally had this as a Cavs piece overall before narrowing it down to just Mobley (nobody wants to read 6,000 words about anything ha, and it was getting beastly). But Garland has not taken the leap I'd hoped.
It's almost like he can't shake the point guard tendencies in his brain to become more of a shooting guard, because regardless of meaningless positional denominations, Mitchell will have the ball a lot, and rightly so. But Garland, sort of like Mobley, just isn't wired to hunt his shot, and he probes too much to keep the offenses' wheels flowing as a secondary ballhandler.
I do think that the Cavs' numbers look a bit out of whack with Garland and Mobley out because of how soft their schedule was, but the point stands.
3) That's a good point. I didn't touch upon Porter because I just don't see a world where he plays meaningful playoff minutes this year over Garland or Mitchell, but I should never say never!
And for sure, the Cavs will receive a lot of clarity this playoff season one way or another. Can't wait to see how it plays out!
To be fair, it can't have been helpful to Garland that he's spent a pretty fair amount of time this season either out injured or playing at what's looked like a good bit less than 100%. Still, he hasn't improved as much as the Cavs need him to if they're going to be a serious title contender.
I did find it interesting when near the end of this piece, one thing you mention might happen in the playoffs is Garland being one of the guys (along with Allen and Mobley) who might have to sit in some situations if the Cavs have to switch things up in a game. This makes a lot of sense to me, honestly, because for as much talk as there is about Allen and Mobley being too similar, I think there's some of that same issue (problems being different, of course) with Garland and Mitchell as well.
Yeah, the numbers say that Garland Mitchell have been fantastic together, and I don't think Garland is an anchor on either end. Even defensively, he's the weak link, but he's a pretty good weak link, if that makes sense.
But I could definitely see a situation where the team needs a bigger backcourt, and you sure aren't sitting Mitchell.
Agreed -- it's not that Garland is bad because he certainly isn't, but there could be situations where you need a bigger backcourt, and as you said Mitchell wouldn't be the one sitting if that happens.
There is some great Basketball Thinking here, even the comments are sharp and insightful. Mobley is not just playing in a phone booth - developing his offensive skills will also depend on improved team play. Coaches, offenses, and players have to get better at using the skills he has already. Mobley should can improve his post game right now - lots of non-distance shooters have go-to moves within ten feet of the rim. Siakam's spin moves, Camby's second effort, Zbo's footwork, McHale's pivot/reverse sweep, even Bird's slippery baseline pumpfakes and double-clutch finishes could fit in Evan's bag. Donovan and Garland need to find Mobley earlier in the shot clock and on the move. Bickerstaff could insert more switches and stunts to cause mismatches.
My one prediction is Cleveland finishes one game ahead of Milwaukee, but I'd love to see Jarrett and Mobley matched against Giannis and Lopez, and/or Tatum and Porzingas in the playoffs. Low post heaven!
Yeah, Mobley needs more fluidity in the post for sure. I do think he's gotten better, but it's far from a strength. I'm not sure that the team can afford to give him much room to experiment at this point in the season, unfortunately; that #2 seed is mighty tasty.
Cleveland/Milwaukee would be a DYNAMITE series!
I’m a fanatic Cavs fan and subscribed for this piece, which did not disappoint! Thanks!
A couple of observations though-
—Mobley isn’t just a bad shooter from 3, he’s bad from anywhere outside of 3 feet. He has no hook, no turnaround, no post moves basically. His shooting percentages look good because he dunks a lot. Over 40% of his made field goals are dunks! That must be historically high for a significant player.
—another Cavs fan concern you didn’t touch on was Garland overdribbling and slowing down the offense. The offense with Garland out and Mitchell taking more of a PG role just looked much more fluid, with more ball movement and open three point attempts. More to the point, that offense was blowing people out in a way the Cavs seem to have stopped doing recently.
—the Cavs may have even more flexibility than you note here. In particular, the undrafted rookie PG Craig Porter was looking absolutely fantastic earlier this year, but it appears the coaching staff decided they didn’t have the minutes available to find a consistent role for him this year.
Anyway, you should certainly do an off season follow up after we see what this squad can do in the playoffs, as I think the Cavs face some of the most interesting roster construction choices in the league going into next year!
Thanks, and welcome!
1) Agreed. I tried to address that by talking about how he's not settling anymore for those half-hooks that aren't all that successful, but could've been more explicit for sure.
2) Yeah, I originally had this as a Cavs piece overall before narrowing it down to just Mobley (nobody wants to read 6,000 words about anything ha, and it was getting beastly). But Garland has not taken the leap I'd hoped.
It's almost like he can't shake the point guard tendencies in his brain to become more of a shooting guard, because regardless of meaningless positional denominations, Mitchell will have the ball a lot, and rightly so. But Garland, sort of like Mobley, just isn't wired to hunt his shot, and he probes too much to keep the offenses' wheels flowing as a secondary ballhandler.
I do think that the Cavs' numbers look a bit out of whack with Garland and Mobley out because of how soft their schedule was, but the point stands.
If you're a Cavs fan, you might like the piece I did on Garland before the season: https://www.basketballpoetry.com/p/darius-garland-is-a-goldfish
3) That's a good point. I didn't touch upon Porter because I just don't see a world where he plays meaningful playoff minutes this year over Garland or Mitchell, but I should never say never!
And for sure, the Cavs will receive a lot of clarity this playoff season one way or another. Can't wait to see how it plays out!
Thanks for the insightful comment!
To be fair, it can't have been helpful to Garland that he's spent a pretty fair amount of time this season either out injured or playing at what's looked like a good bit less than 100%. Still, he hasn't improved as much as the Cavs need him to if they're going to be a serious title contender.
I did find it interesting when near the end of this piece, one thing you mention might happen in the playoffs is Garland being one of the guys (along with Allen and Mobley) who might have to sit in some situations if the Cavs have to switch things up in a game. This makes a lot of sense to me, honestly, because for as much talk as there is about Allen and Mobley being too similar, I think there's some of that same issue (problems being different, of course) with Garland and Mitchell as well.
Yeah, the numbers say that Garland Mitchell have been fantastic together, and I don't think Garland is an anchor on either end. Even defensively, he's the weak link, but he's a pretty good weak link, if that makes sense.
But I could definitely see a situation where the team needs a bigger backcourt, and you sure aren't sitting Mitchell.
Agreed -- it's not that Garland is bad because he certainly isn't, but there could be situations where you need a bigger backcourt, and as you said Mitchell wouldn't be the one sitting if that happens.