This player can unlock the Cavs...

As the East continues to improve, the Cavs have to do something to hang with the rest of the teams. Maybe the answer isn't signing a new player or making a trade. The current Cavs players have to be better in order for the Cavs to make a run. And it starts with Evan Mobley. Evan Mobley has to be better playing next season, moving forward. He did not have his best season of his career this past year. He needs to improve. And I'll get into that a little bit later on in the video. But first, it really starts with everybody. It's not just Evan Mobley. It's the whole core of this Cavs team. It's Donovan Mitchell. It's James Harden. It's Evan Mobley. It's Jared Allen. It's the core players. They all have to play better. Donovan Mitchell and James Harden, sure, we know what they can do. We know they're the leading scorers on our team. They're going to carry the offense most every night. But Evan Mobley and Jared Allen, they have to do their part on offense as well. Jared Allen's scoring numbers have been down. Evan Mobley's scoring numbers were down significantly last year, as well as his shooting splits. And even the role players like Max Struess, we need somebody to fill Dean Wade's role since he's now in Philadelphia. We need other players to step up other than Donovan Mitchell and James Harden. Those two guys had to carry the load and have way too much pressure on their backs for most of the games last year, especially in the postseason. They carried so much of a load, especially on offense. And then the other half of the floor on defense. Harden and Mitchell are not guys known for their defense. They're not guys who are going to sit down and get stops, lock down the other team's best player night in and night out. So we need other players to do that. And Evan Mobley, now that Dean Wade's gone, is going to be that guy who's locking down the other team's best player if it's a big, most likely. If it's a 3, 4, or 5, Mobley's probably going to be guarding him. In my eyes, for example, if we were to play the Celtics, I'm putting Mobley on Tatum. Mobley can hang with them footwork-wise. Obviously, Jason Tatum's faster than Evan Mobley. But Mobley can slide with him. He can stay with him for the most part. And he's got the lane, so Tatum just can't shoot over him. Versus if we were to guard him with a smaller player like Max Strews, Tatum could just shoot over Strews. Mobley at least takes that part of his game away. So everybody has to improve both on offense, offensively and defensively, especially the role players, with helping out with the scoring load. Now, we talked about Evan Mobley and how he has to be better. But really, it's mostly on offense for Mobley where he has to improve. He needs to become a better shooter. And then on the other side of the ball, his defense. It wasn't there last year. It wasn't there to the prior year where he won defensive player of the year, the best defensive player in the NBA. Last year, he was clearly not the best defensive player in the league. He was nowhere near what Wenbin Yama was doing. Of course, Wenbin has another five inches on Mobley. And he's a lot longer in lane theory. He's got a crazy wingspan. Everybody knows that. But Mobley, he's still a tall, long player. He can have that similar impact that Wenbin has. And Mobley, he just didn't see that on the defensive side of the ball last year. Now, let's take a look at some of his stats from last season. Now, Mobley, we talked about the scoring numbers not being there. 18 points per game last season during the regular season. Now, that number dipped even more in the playoffs when the lights were brightest and it mattered the most. Mobley didn't show up and he wasn't playing his best. The rebound numbers are always going to be there. Nearly a double-double for Mobley last season. But where you're really looking here are the shooting numbers on offense. Just under 30% from three-point range is terrible. Last season, Mobley was in the high 30s. He was around a 37-38% three-point shooter. Now, those looks were on wide-open threes. He wasn't an established shooter yet. So he was getting open looks when, in that time, Mitchell or Garland were driving and kicking, picking pop. And he had an open look. He was knocking down his open threes this past season. Teams gave him the same looks and he shot, what is that, seven, eight percent, a seven to eight percentage lower than last season on open threes, especially in the playoffs. Every time he had an open look, I was just pleaded with him to kick it because we have other guys on the floor who are way better shooters than Evan Mobley, especially from distance. Now, if you look at this a little bit more, the free-throw numbers are terrible as well. Sixty percent from the free-throw line for an NBA player, that should be unacceptable. NBA players should be around 75 to 80 percent. You made it to the top level of basketball. You can make an open 15-foot standstill shot with no hand in your face. And Mobley shooting those at a 60 percent clip. So Mobley's got to get into the gym this offseason. He's got to improve his shot. He's got to work on those mechanics and become a better shooter, a better offensive player. The other thing is the turnovers. The turnovers are pretty high, especially for a guy who's not handling the ball. It's not like he's bringing up the ball and getting the offense involved and everything. He's not the primary ball handler on the Cavs. He's averaging two turnovers per game. Mobley, the only time he should be dribbling is if he has a larger center who's not as quick as him. Mobley's rather fleet-footed for a seven-footer. And one move and go, he can beat somebody who's slower than him. But any other time than that, he should be dribbling with his back to the basket on the low block. Mobley should not be dribbling. And I saw that a lot in the postseason. Mobley was trying to go off the dribble from the perimeter instead of us establishing him down low and one of the guards feeding him with the ball in an area where he can do some damage. So Mobley has to refine his offensive game by first being smarter about his opportunities when to pick his poison, if he's got a mismatch or not, just when to go and attack from the perimeter or with his back to the basket, when to just call for the ball in the post. Yo, I got a mismatch. Throw it down low and let me go to work. He's got to do more of that, obviously, defensively and just not dribbling as much as well for Evan Mobley. Now, the reason why I'm bringing up Evan Mobley and why he has to improve is there was an article that came out on Bleacher Report. It was written by Grant Hughes and basically you had 30 players, one from each NBA team that said who has the most to prove on each NBA team. And Evan Mobley was that player for the Cleveland Cavaliers. And he wrote a little blurb about Mo and said that he's entering the second season of his max contract and it was a disappointing effort. He's got to be better. For a max contract player, he's not playing at the level that he should be. The three-point percentage was a huge drop-off. Wasn't even close to being a defensive player of the year. Obviously, the free-throw numbers that I talked about earlier. And he's just not playing at that all-NBA, all-star level that he needs to be playing at. He won defensive player of the year. He's been an all-star. He's been an all-NBA player and he came nowhere near that this past season. You're expecting a huge jump from last season, 20-plus points per game, maybe averaging a double-double. And defensively, you want to see those block numbers high, those block numbers around two, three blocks per game for a seven-footer like Mobley. But just the expectation, and I agree with Grant Hughes in this article, the expectation for Mobley, he's got to be better. He's got to improve. He's got to be a better player, especially with the start that he's had to his young career. It's been a slow trajectory upwards up until this season. He took a huge step backwards. And you typically don't see that out of a younger player. So I'm worried that maybe Mobley already had his prime. Maybe he already had that best year when he won defensive player of the year. I don't know. I hope for the Cavs' sake that Mobley has not had his prime year yet. But who knows? We'll have to see how much of a step forward he takes this upcoming season. And it's going to be interesting to see. But let's see what you guys think. Has Mobley reached his prime? Has he passed his prime? Did he already have his best season? Or is there still more to come? Is he going to take a big step up for this upcoming season? That's what I hope selfishly, because I want to see Mobley take that another next step and be an all-NBA caliber defensive player of the year four with preferably an improved three-point shot. So to stay updated with all of the Cavs' offseason news and any free agent signings, any trades that the Cavs might make, hopefully they do, hopefully they don't stay with the current roster that we have because in the Strong East we need some help, just hit that subscribe button to Cavs Digest to stay updated with all the latest news. Go Cavs! Peace.