The growth of Cleveland Cavaliers big man Evan Mobley has been a major key to the team’s success this season.
When the Cavs hired head coach Kenny Atkinson in the offseason, they were said to be “eager” for him to impact Mobley’s development. That vision has materialized, as Mobley was named an All-Star this season several months after Atkinson was hired.
But the credit can’t all go to Atkinson, and he doesn’t want it to, either.
“Empowering Mobley has been a collective effort,” wrote Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated. “For it to work, his teammates had to embrace it. The Cavs won 48 games last season. They advanced to the second round of the playoffs. Darius Garland and Jarrett Allen have résumés that include All-Star appearances. Donovan Mitchell has been in the mix for MVP. It would have been easy to maintain the status quo. Instead, Cleveland’s vets not only embraced a bigger role for the 23-year-old Mobley—they also pushed for it.”
Atkinson explained to Mannix how Mitchell, Garland and Allen all said, “Evan’s our next step.”
“I would think if I’m a star, it would be like, ‘Hey, let’s sit down. Let’s sit down and see how I can get the ball more,’” said Atkinson. “And their first thing to me was, ‘What’s our next step?’ And this is all of them, Donovan, DG, Jarrett, they’re like, ‘Evan’s our next step.’ That’s selfless. Without the buy-in of those guys, it doesn’t work. Everyone in the organization gets it. Everyone was on board.”
After Mobley turned heads in the NBA during his rookie season, growth came slowly for him in his second and third seasons. He was always an incredibly impactful defender, but his offensive game seemingly had lots of untapped potential.
This season, he has tapped into a lot of that potential.
- Mobley’s first three seasons: 15.6 points per game, 11.8 shot attempts per game, 1.3 shot attempts per game from deep
- Mobley this season: 18.5 points per game, 12.8 shot attempts per game, 3.2 shot attempts per game from deep
A more aggressive Mobley has been crucial for the Cavs, who went 64-18 in the regular season en route to landing the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference. Cleveland will face the No. 8 seed in the East in the first round of the playoffs, with that series scheduled to begin on Sunday.
Part of Mobley’s success this season is owed to his 3-point shooting. While he shot 37.3 percent from 3 last season, he only took 1.2 shots from deep per game. This season, while increasing his volume on his 3-point shooting, he has remained efficient with it, making 37.0 percent of his attempts.
His overall comfortability as an offensive player has also looked better this season, and perhaps the most exciting part is that the best may be yet to come for him on that end of the floor. The 23-year-old still has plenty of time to reach his offensive ceiling with the help of Atkinson, his teammates and other members of his circle.
The Cavs have huge goals for the playoffs this season, and if they want to realize them, they’re going to need Mobley to do his thing. With any luck, his offensive improvement will be just as noticeable in the postseason.
