Once Evan Mobley put together an All-NBA, Defensive Player of the Year-caliber season, the bar moved. Quickly. MVP chatter followed, and with it came the assumption that anything less would feel like a step back.
That’s the context Mobley is operating in now, especially with Cavaliers games under a brighter spotlight and patience running thinner when things go sideways.
Mobley deserved criticism for parts of the Cavs’ loss to Oklahoma City on Sunday. Two rebounds from a player his size will always stand out, and a handful of late possessions didn’t go his way.
But pinning the Thunder’s extra chances entirely on him misses the bigger picture. The Cavs’ switch-heavy scheme pulled Mobley away from the paint often, and several long rebounds ended up far from his area of responsibility.
Offensively, the story is even more layered. The Cavs experimented early, asking Mobley to handle and create more. Later, they shifted him closer to the basket, where he found a rhythm before calf issues disrupted his season twice.
Now, he’s adjusting again, this time alongside James Harden, which reshapes his role and pegs him closer to a third scoring option.
That doesn’t mean Mobley has plateaued. He turns 25 in June, remains one of the league’s most impactful defenders, and is still navigating shifting responsibilities on a team pushing hard to contend.
The expectations are sky-high. Fair or not, that’s the reality. Mobley’s challenge now is embracing a role that keeps changing, while the noise only gets louder.
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We can’t expect 7 footers to hit the ground running when coming back from a leg injury of any kind. He needs to stop sitting. He will need some games to get back up to speed. And I don’t think minutes restrictions or taking back to backs off helps him get his legs back.
I don’t like the media expectations on Mobley, or they type of player they see him out to be. It’s annoying and misleading when they paint somebody’s future for them, before letting them develop an NBA body, before letting him learn from experience on the court, and maybe discovering for himself where he can find his own advantages. Instead it’s this scripted version that tries to tell you what you’re going to see before there is a chance to watch it. Before it happens. That narratives are never really right, Gotta let these guys write their own careers. Let it happen, then write about what happens. That should be enough. Just takes work,
Disagree? How close did Garland and Sexton get to looking like Dame and CJ? On a scale of 1 to 10?