Evan Mobley at 2022 Cavs Media Day. Rob Lorenzo/ESPN Cleveland
Danny Cunningham covers the Cavs for 850 ESPN Cleveland and TheLandOnDemand.comOn Monday evening, the Cleveland Cavaliers made the announcement that second-year big man Evan Mobley would be missing the team’s first preseason game against Philadelphia with a sprained right ankle and would be out of action for approximately one-to-two weeks.
It’s notable that the Cavs open up the season against Toronto just two weeks and one day from right now. If all goes well with Mobley, it’s likely he’s able to play in that game and his season isn’t impacted. That said, with how tight the team’s initial timeline for Mobley is to the start of the season, Mobley being available could be in jeopardy, especially if the Cavs opt to take a conservative approach with his health early in the season.
That said, there doesn’t seem to be much concern about that from the organization as of this moment.
“Obviously, we'll see how he responds to all that. We'll always be safe with our guys, but right now there is no concern that he'll miss the start of the season,” Cavs head coach JB Bickerstaff said.
Mobley’s injury occurred during Saturday’s practice. He sustained it while playing five-on-five. Bickerstaff told reporters that he landed on a foot after attacking the basket.
Game action
While the Cavs will obviously be without Mobley on Wednesday night in Philadelphia, Bickerstaff did tell the media on Monday that all healthy bodies would play for the team in its preseason opener.
Two of those healthy bodies that will be taking the court together for their first game action together are All-Star guards Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland. Bickstaff said that the duo would each get “a couple runs” in the game but didn’t ballpark how many minutes they would play. The same goes for All-Star center Jarrett Allen.
The biggest thing to watch for in the preseason opener will be the play out on the wings. It’s been well documented that the team is currently searching for a starting small forward and has quite a few guys in competition for that spot. Bickerstaff elected not to name a frontrunner for that starting spot, nor who would be starting for the team on Wednesday night.
“The level of competition has been high, for sure,” Bickerstaff said. “I think all the guys that are in that spot have had their moments and they've continued to push each other. A lot of our evaluation is gonna come from in-game reps with these preseason games. Again, when you're playing another opponent, you get a chance to see what your groups need. So, we've gotta put them on the floor and get those reps against other opponents.”
It wouldn’t be a total shock if the Cavaliers started two wings on Wednesday night, with Dean Wade starting in place of Mobley, and one of the other wings between Caris LeVert, Isaac Okoro, Dylan Windler, Cedi Osman, and Lamar Stevens to start at the small forward position. There are other directions the Cavs can go, however that’s one of them.For the Cavs, the game also serves as a chance to play against a different uniform for the first time this season. It can grow tiring continuing to square off against teammates each day at the facility. That changes on Wednesday night.
“Just that, competing against somebody else. It's always different when you're going against your own stuff,” Bickerstaff said. “The guys know the plays, the offense knows the schemes and how to take advantage of it, so it's always good to go put your test against another team. Catch them a little bit by surprise and catch you by surprise because there's things you haven't seen and kinda how you react to that. For our guys, mistakes are OK, but it's a matter of are we competing at the level that we want to compete at, even in preseason and are we playing as selfless as we want to play and then we'll build from there.”
Survey says…
NBA.com released its annual GM survey on Tuesday and the Cleveland Cavaliers were mentioned quite a bit in it.
The survey starts off by listing the Milwaukee Bucks as favorites to win their second NBA Championship in three seasons with 43% of the vote from the various general managers around the NBA. The Bucks were obviously voted to finish first in the Eastern Conference, where the Cavaliers were picked sixth, but did receive votes as high as fourth.
The next few areas that the Cavs were mentioned should have fans excited, particularly as Mobley was voted as the player in the NBA that is most likely to have a breakout season in 2022-23. He received 21% of the vote, eclipsing Detroit’s Cade Cunningham and Minnesota’s Anthony Edwards who tied for second with 17% of the vote each.
The Cavs really made their mark when it comes to offseason praise, though. The team was voted as having the best overall moves this offseason (41% of the vote), while Donovan Mitchell was named the one player acquisition that will have the biggest impact (59% of the vote), Mitchell getting traded to Cleveland was also ranked as the second most surprising move of the offseason, only behind former Utah Jazz teammate Rudy Gobert being traded to Minnesota earlier in the summer. Cleveland was also picked second to be the most improved team this season, trailing only the LA Clippers who are slated to have All-Star wings Kawhi Leonard and Paul George return from injury absences that have cost them quite a bit of time over the last few years.
The Cavaliers did win one other category, which may be the one that speaks most to what the team has built after last year’s surprising run to the NBA Play-In Tournament. Cleveland was voted to have the most promising young core of players. The Cavs received 41% of the vote, topping the Memphis Grizzlies who received 38% of the vote.
For the rest of the NBA GM survey, click here.
