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'It's a glimpse': Cavaliers believe Evan Mobley can break out in Kenny Atkinson offense
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- 'It's a glimpse': Cavaliers believe Evan Mobley can break out in Kenny Atkinson offense
CLEVELAND — A lot of coaches lose sleep for a wide variety of reasons. Sometimes it's figuring out how to stop an opposing star. Sometimes it's how to handle a tricky locker room situation. It's often something negative.
For Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson , one of the reasons he's lost some sleep since taking over the job involves Evan Mobley . But in this case, it's "in a good way."
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Atkinson has now seen Mobley up close. And even in just an eight-game sample, Mobley has Atkinson dreaming of all the doors the Cavs could open offensively with his diverse skill set and athleticism.
The possibilities have Atkinson's head spinning.
"He's convinced me faster than I thought that he's more skilled than I thought, a better decision-maker than I thought, a better shooter than I thought — so that opens up a world," Atkinson said. "We can't rush it, though. We can't jam it. But it really keeps me up at night, in a good way. Like, man, how else can we use him?"
Unlocking Mobley's potential and furthering his development was a key factor in the Cavs bringing in Atkinson to replace J.B. Bickerstaff. So far, the returns in that regard have been positive for the 8-0 Cavs.
Cleveland Cavaliers forward Evan Mobley (4) drives to the basket against Milwaukee Bucks center Brook Lopez (11) during the second half Monday, Nov. 4, 2024, in Cleveland.
Evan Mobley excelling in Kenny Atkinson's Cavaliers offense
Entering Monday night, Mobley was averaging 17.7 points , 8.6 rebounds and 2.7 assists in 29.6 minutes. It's a slight uptick in production, but it isn't in Mobley's traditional numbers that the Cavs see the biggest growth or the most effective possibilities.
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It's in running the offense through him as a facilitator and allowing him to be the decision-maker. His skill set — he can dribble, shoot from the perimeter, pass with efficiency or create space — brings plenty of possibilities into play, and the Cavs are using it to keep defenses guessing as to what's coming next.
Mobley is a bigger key to the offense than the box score will indicate for how he's used to set up plays. Atkinson referred to him as a "wing-big" for his 7-foot wingspan and athleticism to run the floor. But perhaps most important in terms of how he can be used in the Cavs offense is his coaches and teammates trust him to make the right decision.
"Sharing the ball and having Evan up at the top," said Jarrett Allen when asked what's been working with the offense. "Being the distributor, he's been doing an excellent job running our offense, basically. We put a lot through him. It just gets everybody open. We have a lot of backdoor cutters as well. We're just meshing well together right now." Cavs teammates continue to refer to him as a "unicorn," which coincides with what keeps Atkinson up at night — the X's and O's possibilities for the Cavs don't exist with many other teams, and it's because of Mobley.
"I've called him a unicorn — there's not a lot of 7-footers out there that can do what he does," said point guard Darius Garland . "We have to implement him on offense. He's handling the ball a lot more, he's getting downhill with the screens we set for him, he's got a lot of mismatches, he can get to the rim with ease."
Cleveland Cavaliers forward Evan Mobley (4) drives against Milwaukee Bucks center Brook Lopez (11) in the first half Saturday, Nov. 3, 2024, in Milwaukee.
Evan Mobley a focal point of Cavaliers ' long-term goals
Perhaps no player is more important to the Cavs' goal of reaching the next level than Mobley, given his sky-high ceiling and youth. Donovan Mitchell said what they've seen thus far this season has to be his baseline.
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"This is the bare minimum," Mitchell said. "I tell him this: 'This is, at minimum, this is who you should be.' He wins first team All-Defense at the age of [22], this is who you are. And there's so many layers to his game that he hasn't even unlocked yet.
"I got to give Kenny a lot of credit, and the staff, just finding ways to put him in positions to succeed. And also for all of us understanding that he's a big piece for us moving forward, and if we want to be a championship contender, he's a big, big part of that.'
Mobley offered a "glimpse" of what Mitchell was describing in Monday night's win over the Milwaukee Bucks . In a matter of two minutes, Mobley had a dunk, another basket, a block at the other end, a thunderous left-handed dunk after dribbling the ball coast-to-coast and finally, a 3-pointer.
"Yeah, I think it's a glimpse," Allen said. "I truly think there's still another level to Evan's game. I think he can be more aggressive at times and take over. But that sequence had everybody watching, everybody around the world watching Evan do a crazy left-handed dunk, get the block, take it full court and dunk it with his left hand. We still want more."
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Cavaliers, Kenny Atkinson focused on Evan Mobley's development
