Former NBA exec ranks Evan Mobley as No. 7 player in NBA this season

With Cleveland Cavaliers big man Evan Mobley on the heels of winning the Defensive Player of the Year award along with putting together his best offensive season in the NBA to date, one former executive has him ranked as a top-10 player in the league.

The Athletic’s John Hollinger, who formerly served as the vice president of basketball operations for the Memphis Grizzlies, has ranked Mobley as the No. 7 NBA player ahead of the beginning of the 2025-26 campaign.

“Mobley still needs to take his offensive game up another level to warrant first-team All-NBA consideration, but as the league’s reigning Defensive Player of the Year, it’s going to be hard to get much better at that end,” Hollinger wrote.

“Meanwhile, his offensive arsenal continues to expand, and the Cavs leaned into it much more last season. There may still be more meat on the bone, as he developed a reliable 3-point shot last season (37.0 percent on more than three tries per game) and can use the threat of it to cook rival bigs off the dribble. A big reason Cleveland didn’t advance out of the second round last season was his injury against Indiana, with Mobley missing Game 2 and not playing to his usual standard in the final three games.

“That might be the biggest knock on him here: He still hasn’t had an emphatic playoff moment, with a 33-point effort in a 2024 elimination game against Boston coming the closest. I’m excited to fast-forward to April and see what he can do in the playoffs at full strength.”

The only six players Hollinger ranked ahead of Mobley were Anthony Edwards, Victor Wembanyama, Luka Doncic, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Nikola Jokic.

Jokic secured the top spot after he became just the third player in the history of the NBA to average a triple-double over the course of a full campaign.

It’s also worth noting that Hollinger slotted Mobley in front of his teammate Donovan Mitchell, who ended up at the No. 10 spot. Mitchell had a real case for being Cleveland’s most impactful player last season, even if he doesn’t have the two-way skill set that Mobley does. The guard has long led the way for the Cavaliers from a scoring standpoint.

Mobley had an up-and-down first three seasons in the NBA thanks largely to injuries as well as a lack of aggressiveness on the offensive end, but he staked his claim as a premier big man in the 2024-25 campaign. He averaged career-highs in points and shot attempts per game while suiting up in 71 contests. Mobley also secured his first All-Star and All-NBA selections at the highest level.

However, for as great as the 24-year-old was on offense last season, it appears as if he still has another level to reach on that end. He’s added an effective 3-point shot to his repertoire, and honing that shot further will make him even more difficult to cover than he already is.

Mobley will have plenty of opportunities to justify his ranking as a top-seven player in the league soon, as the Cavaliers’ 82-game odyssey will start with a game against the New York Knicks on Oct. 22.