Evan Mobley takes a shot against the Orlando Magic. ESPN Cleveland/Madison Hayes
Film Friday: How the Cavaliers can put Evan Mobley in position to attack on offense
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Danny Cunningham covers the Cavaliers for 850 ESPN Cleveland and TheLandOnDemand.comThrough the first four games of the season, the Cavaliers haven’t been whole and have been searching for a greater product than what they have.
This isn’t to say the team hasn’t been good, because they have absolutely been one of the best teams in the league through the first week. The way they have been great, though, isn’t the way they should continue to be, at least offensively. A good amount of this will be solved when All-Star point guard Darius Garland returns from his left eye laceration that was suffered in the second quarter on opening night in Toronto.
What looked like it may have started to be solved on Wednesday night was the output from second-year big man Evan Mobley. In each of the first three games of the season, Mobley didn’t register more than nine shot attempts. The efficiency was there, as Mobley was still shooting 56 percent from the field, but the volume – especially as the team’s second option with Garland out – just simply wasn’t good enough.
Wednesday night was a different story, especially once the third quarter arrived. For the first half, Mobley looked passive and struggled to find spots where he could attack the basket. After halftime, there was a shift in attitude. Mobley was not only aggressive in terms of seeking out his own shot, but he was aggressive in seeking out the basketball. It was partially the Cavs forcing the ball to him, but it was also Mobley ensuring that he received the ball in a position to be successful.
“I found my rhythm in the second half,” Mobley said after the win on Wednesday. “I just really feel like was going to get the ball whenever it got stagnant. That's what we've been really working on. Second half, I really got to it. First half, I just gotta put the whole entire game together.”
The key to this point has been getting Mobley in a place he’s comfortable where he can operate in space. Too often during the first three games Mobley was being set up in unfamiliar spots while facing the brunt of opposing defenses. Against Washington, Mobley was almost always either matched up with a thicker, stronger defender – Kyle Kuzma did a terrific job – or was double teamed.
Against the Magic, the Cavaliers were consistently able to put Mobley in good positions. He was able to work his way into areas where he’s comfortable taking – and making – shots. For the most part this year, that’s in the restricted area.
The play starts by Mobley setting a screen for Donovan Mitchell at the top of the 3-point arc. The Magic don’t fight very hard to prevent a switch defensively, and Kevon Harris ends up taking Mobley defensively from Bol Bol. Harris is listed at 6-foot-6 and 216 pounds and Bol is 7-foot-2 and has arms that can basically stretch from the ground to the rim.
Once this was realized, Mobley took Harris straight to the block, where he received a pass from Kevin Love. With Cedi Osman and Caris LeVert on the weakside, neither of their defenders could help on Mobley and the result was an easy bucket for the Cavs.
Where things haven’t worked nearly as well for Mobley have been inside the paint but outside of the restricted area. He’s taken 14 shots there through four games and made just four of them. Of course, not all misses are the same, but some of them have been the result of a lack of space or a poor start to his possession.
When Mobley has the ball on the right block, he’s dealing with a double team that is partially due to sharing the same side of the floor with Isaac Okoro. Opposing defenses don’t have much respect for Okoro’s outside game – he’s yet to make a 3-point attempt this season – and it impacts the rest of the floor.
Kuzma does a good job on Mobley, as he attempts to back him down but can’t gain much ground, by that point another double comes to the block in the form of Krristaps Porzingis. This forces Mobley into an ugly looking shot from seven feet out that clanks off the front of the rim. From the moment Mobley touched the ball on this possession, nothing went right. These possessions have seemingly happened more when Okoro is on the floor with Mobley. The space that Mobley (and others) need to operate is sapped away due to opponents not respecting Okoro offensively. When those two are on the floor together the Cavs score just 95.4 points per 100 possessions.
Mobley hasn’t taken jump shots at a high volume to this point in the season. He’s attempted four shots in the midrange and a trio of 3-point attempts. While the 3-point attempts haven’t come in bunches – or even at all since the third quarter on opening night – the midrange is an area Mobley does look to be comfortable in. He’s made two of his four attempts, with both of them being well defended by opponents. The Cavs, however, have done a good job in letting Mobley go to work with it, but the frequency could be higher.
The Cavaliers essentially threw Mobley the ball in a one-on-one matchup with Bol and got out of the way. Bol does a good job of defending it, but in the NBA good offense beats good defense. If this is a shot that Mobley is going to consistently knock down, the offense for the Cavs is going to be that much better and life for opposing teams is going to be much more challenging.
One of the things that Mobley could benefit from is having the ability to attack in transition or semi-transition against a defense that isn’t all the way set. There was his coast-to-coast play against the Raptors to start the season that was one of the highlights for him, but in all, he’s only taken five attempts that fall under this category in the first four games for the Cavs.
Against the Wizards, letting Mobley get downhill while Washington wasn’t totally set resulted in a somewhat easy two points. Yes, Porzingis was there to contest the shot, but this is one that Mobley’s going to make far more often than he’s going to miss.
With Garland out, Mobley and Mitchell are trying to piece together pick-and-roll chemistry on the fly. It’s something that takes time, and is different for every ballhandler. The way Mitchell prefers to have a screen set is different than how Garland prefers, which is different than LeVert does, and so on.
Mobley does have that chemistry with Garland already, and when he returns to the floor from his injury, it should be a big boost for Mobley.
pic.twitter.com/3pXlJZAcrI— Danny Cunningham (@RealDCunningham) October 28, 2022
In the above play, Mobley doesn’t have to set the screen for long, and actually does so with getting Garland open to receive a pass from Love, but it so easily becomes both Mobley and Garland going towards the rim with no good choices for the defense. Right now, there has been some of this between Mobley and Osman, but plays like this should increase for Mobley once Garland returns.
These are the ways in which life becomes easier for Mobley and the Cavaliers offensively. There’s no reason to push the panic button, and the thing to watch over the next handful of games is whether or not Mobley truly did find his rhythm on Wednesday night against the Magic. After all, missing all but one preseason game was a big deal for him, both in terms of chemistry building and his conditioning.
“Just to be fair, like, this is his preseason. He goes down in training camp, gets one preseason game. It takes people time to catch a rhythm, especially coming back from that injury,” Bickerstaff said following the win over Orlando. “So, there was no speculation about his game or talent or ability. We know who Evan is and we know what he's capable of. We just have to be fair, and judge him under the right microscope, understanding that he's working his way through his preseason, while everybody else has had that opportunity.”
