Cleveland Cavaliers rookie Evan Mobley’s early success has reportedly led to other coaches expressing jealousy toward Cavs head coach J.B. Bickerstaff for getting to coach him.
Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com looked at how Mobley’s quick development has caught the attention of other coaches.
“A source said multiple coaches have recently expressed jealousy to Bickerstaff that he gets to coach the Rookie of the Year frontrunner who is averaging 15.3 points, 7.8 rebounds, 2.4 assists, 1.4 blocks and 1.0 steals,” Fedor wrote.
Drafted with the third overall pick back in July, Mobley was expected to eventually be a key aspect of the Cavaliers’ lineup.
However, given the up-and-down starts of past high picks like Collin Sexton and Darius Garland, the Cavaliers are certainly pleasantly surprised regarding how much of an impact Mobley has already made.
Bickerstaff was quick to point out that Mobley’s on-court maturity is already in evidence and is helping to change the franchise’s losing ways.
“I don’t know if I’ve seen it, to be honest with you, or been around it,” Bickerstaff said when asked about Mobley’s impact on winning. “That’s how rare it is. Normally, young guys are so consumed with figuring the game out for themselves that they struggle to impact winning. I’m not getting ahead of myself here, but he’s shown these first games that’s the impact he can have. Because one, his skill set, but two, his intent. He does not care about anything else. There’s no agenda, there’s no motive. His sole focus is, how do I help the Cleveland Cavaliers win basketball games? He just goes out and does that. When you play the game with that purity of heart, and then throw his skill set on top of it and intellect, you’ve got a guy that impacts winning. He can do it so many different ways. Any given night, he can help you in any way.”
The combination of Mobley and Garland is evolving into a powerful duo for the Cavaliers’ offense, which helps explain why they’ve gotten off to an 8-5 start this season.
The most exciting aspect of that surging duo is the fact that Garland is just 21 years of age and Mobley is just a year younger.
For the immediate future, Mobley will focus on the Cavaliers’ next game, which will be on Saturday at home against the Boston Celtics.
