Cavs training camp observations: Evan Mobley’s next step, De’Andre Hunter standing out

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Cavs training camp observations: Evan Mobley’s next step, De’Andre Hunter standing out

Spencer Davies, ClutchPoints

Wed, Oct 1, 2025 ·

6 min read

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The post Cavs training camp observations: Evan Mobley's next step, De'Andre Hunter standing out appeared first on ClutchPoints .

After a fun-filled start to the week at Media Day back home , the Cleveland Cavaliers got to business on Tuesday afternoon at IMG Academy.

"I think our buildup to this, with guys coming in early on their own, it makes this transition to training camp easier," Cavs head coach Kenny Atkinson told a handful of reporters who made the trip to Bradenton, Florida. "We don't have to overdo it right off the bat. Guys have been working and conditioning leading up to this, so, a good day. We didn't scrimmage today. Probably get to that tomorrow."

ClutchPoints will be on-site for the first three days of Cavs training camp in Bradenton, Florida, and highlight the most notable storylines of each day.

Here is what stood out on Day 1:

A stronger Evan Mobley opens a world of possibilities

Atkinson's expectations for Evan Mobley are through the roof . Sometimes, if a coach says something that puts too much pressure on a blossoming player, it'll get clarified or put more gently in hindsight. In this particular case, he's doubling down on the reigning Defensive Player of the Year and Second Team All-NBA member.

"It's pretty amazing at 24 years old, when you put all those accolades together, right? He's not 28. You're 24 ," Atkinson said. "Maybe you can project better than me, but if you look at that, there's other things out there that he can be in the conversation for. And I think we will see, you guys will observe the early part of the season, but it seems to me like he's going to make another jump. I keep saying that. It just feels that way."

Despite what the training camp roster list indicates, a league source told ClutchPoints that Mobley is now around 226 pounds.

With more added strength, Atkinson wants to see Mobley consistently play with more force. He is excited about his potential as a ball-handler, but doesn't want the seven-footer to get away from being a big man.

"The challenge for me: I love perimeter Evan. I love it. But I also love interior Evan," Atkinson said. "I thought last year we did a good job of finding that balance. I think the hardest to guard is if you can do both really well. That's your complete player. I want to continue to find that balance with him."

It's also understood that opposing teams will try to take away the ball from the Cavs' guards, so he'll have to be ready for that too. Atkinson detailed the coaching staff's specific plan to prepare Mobley for those scenarios.

"You have to be able to handle the ball in space, and then you've got to be able to go get us a bucket when we need a bucket," Atkinson said. "They're taking away our drive, kick, swing. They're taking all our stuff away. Sometimes you've got to throw it to a guy, and he's got to go get it.

"Those were two things we worked on, and we're still working on. Today, we played a bunch of 1-on-1, elbow, mid-post. Just getting him in a little bit of a mentality of, 'Hey, when we need a bucket, I can go get it for us.'"

According to Atkinson, Mobley has been one of Cleveland's top 3-point shooters in the preseason. He is showing his development in driving off closeouts from that threat, an area of his game in which he showed some hesitation last season.

"Definitely stronger. He's definitely more aggressive. He has confidence," De'Andre Hunter added. "You can tell he's putting in a lot of work. I've seen it this summer, I was working out with him. He's gotten a lot better, us giving him confidence and the confidence he has in himself.

"I think he's going to have a great year."

De'Andre Hunter should fit like a glove

Atkinson shared that Hunter's willingness to open up to the Cavs is like "night and day." They're not making anything official anytime soon, but in all likelihood, the 27-year-old forward should wind up in the starting five.

ClutchPoints asked Hunter how he can complement Mobley and Jarrett Allen on each end of the floor.

"I think we're going to help each other a lot defensively, being able to switch with those guys, it makes it easier for them," Hunter responded. "They don't have to worry about guarding the pick-and-roll as much as a big. So I just try to make it easy for them, they try to make it easy for me. And offensively, I mean, we're still going to have to figure it out. I haven't played with them for too long, so I've still got to figure out what they like, what they're used to, but I think that'll be easy."

Posed the same question, Atkinson believes it should work "seamlessly" with the trio.

"Dre is really kind of perimeter oriented offensively. He can play behind the three, and he gives you great spacing the way he shoots the ball, so there's no spacing issues there," Atkinson said. "He gives you an isolation scorer, obviously. Then defensively, I know those three on the court, they defended pretty well, and they rebounded well. I'm excited to see what that looks like. I think Dre is a good match with Sam (Merrill) and Don (Mitchell), too. They complement each other in a way.

"I haven't committed to anything yet, but they're going to get kind of first shot at what that looks like. I don't see, 'Well, it can't work because of this.' I haven't seen negatives to it yet. But again, we've got to see more on the floor."

Hunter also brought up being more vocal on his part as an area he'd like to be better at: "Max ( Strus ) is one of our vocal guys who might not be around for the first few months. TT [ Tristan Thompson ] was one of our more vocal guys as well. So I think I have to step into that role and help Don and help DG [ Darius Garland ] in that regard."

The Cavs are not going to rush Darius Garland back

Garland had a 45-minute individual workout without contact on the first day of camp.

"He looked good in those 45 minutes," Atkinson said. "He's moving quickly in small spaces, attacking closeouts. No contact. No contact. I don't want anybody to read too much into that. But definitely getting some good on-court work, individual work."

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