CLEVELAND — As the final couple of minutes ticked off the halftime clock before the start of the third quarter Monday night, Evan Mobley lingered behind the top of the 3-point arc and began to launch. Shot after shot, all 3s. He made some, missed some. But the important part was that in his first game back following knee surgery, Mobley just kept shooting.
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If Mobley and the Cavaliers are to reach their full potential, that eventually has to transfer into actual games. Preferably sooner than later. It’s time for Mobley to start shooting 3s.
The Cavs want nothing more than for Mobley to become a viable 3-point threat. It is the single-biggest factor that could unlock levels this roster hasn’t yet reached. It would also elevate Mobley from a pretty good young talent into one of the league’s most dynamic weapons. That’s not hyperbole. Mobley’s athleticism and ability to defend are elite. Add a 3-point club into his bag and I absolutely believe he’s a perennial All-Star who will eventually start catching MVP votes.
But none of that will happen until Mobley starts, you know, shooting.
The Land(scape) has changed these last few weeks. When Mobley limped onto the operating table in December, the Cavaliers hadn’t figured out how to drive this pace-and-space, shoot ’em if you got ’em, 3-pointapalooza party bus. They were 13-12 and ranked 18th in the league in 3-point attempts per game when both Mobley and Darius Garland went down with injuries.
In the 19 games since, the Cavs are attempting more than 40 3s a game. Only Boston is shooting more.
The defense has remained elite even while the offense transformed into this one-in, four-out philosophy of surrounding Jarrett Allen with four shooters. It has unlocked both the offense and Allen, whose 20 points and 17 rebounds in the Cavs’ impressive 118-108 win over the red-hot Los Angeles Clippers on Monday gave him double-doubles in a club-record 15 consecutive games.
As I talked to other teams around the league prior to the season, that was supposed to be Mobley. As opponents discussed the Cavs, no one talked about this team as a threat with Allen surrounded by four shooters. It was always Mobley, primarily because of his lack of a 3-point shot. (And probably Allen’s miserable showing against the Knicks in the playoffs last spring.)
SHEESH. 😮💨@evanmobley | #LetEmKnow pic.twitter.com/rpFnCGQaLb
— Cleveland Cavaliers (@cavs) January 30, 2024
Now with Allen thriving and this team feasting on 3s, the best way for Allen and Mobley to stay on the court together for long stretches is for Mobley to finally have the confidence in his 3-point shot to start letting them fly.
“If Evan is open behind the 3-point line, we’ve talked to him, he’s got to take those shots,” Cavs coach J.B. Bickerstaff said. “He has the ability to make those shots, but it’s difficult in a game if you’re only going to shoot one a game or one every two weeks.”
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Mobley is only 22 years old and still has plenty of time for his game to grow and evolve. Nevertheless, he’s a dreadful 23 percent career 3-point shooter in part because he’s only taken 204 career attempts in 170 games. Georges Niang has taken more in a bench role for the Cavs just this season.
Mobley reclaimed his customary starting job Monday, but Bickerstaff juggled Mobley and Allen, often subbing one for the other because Mobley was limited to just 21 minutes in his first game back from knee surgery. Playing one big at a time allows whichever one is on the floor to be the center surrounded by shooters. But their time on the floor together will inevitably grow as Mobley’s minutes increase.
When Mobley is sharing the floor with Allen, Bickerstaff wants him spending more time on the perimeter to space the court appropriately. But that also means he has to take — and make — those shots.
“We’ve had some guys that have been reluctant to take as many 3s as we’re looking for,” Bickerstaff said. “But their teammates have put so much pressure on them that they’re just like, ‘to hell with it, I got to do it.’”
Now that’s Mobley. He’s got to start doing it.
Mobley had 10 points and nine rebounds against the Clippers. It was a typical Mobley night condensed into 21 minutes. It was a fine first game back after missing six weeks. Yet he spent most of the night, as usual, hovering around the paint. He did not attempt a single 3-pointer.
Dean Wade, conversely, served as one of the starters while Mobley was out and averaged more than four 3-point attempts per start. Wade only shot 2 of 8 Monday against the Clippers, but he was still a plus-20 on the court largely because of the spacing he provided at the 4 and the threat of his shot. It’s a threat and respect level that Mobley hasn’t yet commanded from opponents.
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The trickle-down effect if Mobley doesn’t emerge as a shooter is complicated. Isaac Okoro, whom Bickerstaff called the best on-ball defender in the league, becomes unplayable in a postseason series alongside two non-shooting bigs. The Cavs feared that would be the case entering the postseason last year and it became painfully obvious in their meltdown against the Knicks. It will be true again this season. If Mobley’s shot doesn’t develop, the Cavs will have to choose, at most, two of those three guys to keep on the floor together.
Now as Garland inches closer and closer to a return, the Cavs will have about 2 1/2 months to start building good habits for the postseason. One of my biggest gripes about how the Cavs handled last season was it felt like a wasted opportunity to work on things that could arise during the playoffs.
Too often, the Cavs reverted to some panic mode version of give the ball to Donovan Mitchell and get out of his way. That works fine on a Tuesday in February in Memphis, but it doesn’t travel well in the playoffs.
Mitchell is a wonderful talent, but he isn’t LeBron or Giannis or Kevin Durant in his prime. He hasn’t yet demonstrated that he’s the type of player who can carry a franchise to a championship.
Right now, in February, March and early April, is the time for Mobley to step back and start letting it fly. Take one game determined to shoot four corner 3s no matter what. If it means sacrificing a game in March, so what? Now is the time for this team to build good habits, and for Mobley, that means creating confidence in his 3-point shot.
That’s what this is really about. I don’t believe Mobley has the confidence to let it go. We’ve seen no evidence yet that he does. Bickerstaff believes he has the confidence, he just has a habit of looking for the next play. By the time he realizes he should shoot it, he’s out of rhythm.
Whatever the reasoning, it’s time to start shooting. Even if he misses the first two or three or four, just keep shooting. The Cavs’ future rotations, and perhaps even their future playoff fate, depend on it.
GO DEEPER
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(Photo of Evan Mobley driving to the basket against Clippers center Daniel Theis: Ken Blaze / USA Today)
