The Cleveland Cavaliers kept most of their roster from the 2023-24 season, after making the second round of the playoffs, intact this offseason.
Cleveland was able to sign star guard Donovan Mitchell to a contract extension, a huge win for the franchise, but ESPN’s Tim Bontemps doesn’t believe that the Cavs’ path to winning a title is with Mitchell being their best player.
“Their path to being a championship-level team is if Donovan Mitchell is their second-best player,” Bontemps said. “And that means Evan Mobley has to take a very big leap. And I think he’s got the athletic gifts to do that, but he’s gotta get there. And, we’ll see if Kenny Atkinson can help him do so.”
The Cavs brought in Atkinson as their new head coach this offseason to replace J.B. Bickerstaff, and he’ll be tasked with getting the most out of Mobley on the offensive end. The former No. 3 overall pick in the 2021 NBA Draft, Mobley has shown flashes of being a gifted offensive player, but his scoring hasn’t grown much since his rookie season.
Mobley averaged 15.7 points on a career-low 11.0 shot attempts per game in the 2023-24 regular season.
However, in the playoffs, he showed he could score at a higher level. With center Jarrett Allen out of the lineup with an injury in the second round against Boston, Mobley was one of the Cavs’ best offensive players.
In five games against Boston, Mobley averaged 21.4 points, 9.4 rebounds, 3.2 assists and 1.0 block per game while shooting 62.7 percent from the field. He scored a playoff career-high 33 points in Game 5 against Boston with both Allen and Mitchell missing the game due to injury.
A five-time All-Star, Mitchell is a great player, but it appears Bontemps thinks that the Cavs need more help if they’re truly going to contend for a championship.
Since coming to Cleveland, Mitchell has led the Cavs to back-to-back playoff berths, but they’ve only won one playoff series, needing seven games to take down the young Orlando Magic in the 2023-24 season.
Mitchell averaged 26.6 points, 5.1 rebounds and 6.1 assists per game last season, but injuries limited him to just 55 games.
If Mobley can develop into a perennial All-Star alongside Mitchell, it would give the Cavs an elite guard-forward duo that could become the best team in the East. Right now, Mitchell is clearly the leader of a solid core of Mobley, Darius Garland and Allen.
If Atkinson can help Mobley develop as a scorer – and potentially scheme for him to get more touches – the Cavs could be a force in the Eastern Conference in the 2024-25 season and beyond.
