Cleveland Cavaliers big man Evan Mobley is in the midst of a terrific rookie campaign. However, he was forced to miss time recently after a bout with COVID-19. Since he’s come back though, the Cavs star has been playing at an extremely high level, especially when it comes to using his physicality to get it going offensively.
Mobley recently discussed how that time on the shelf helped his game. Via The Athletic:
“I always knew that I could do these types of things,” Mobley said. “More of a mental mindset. I feel like your mindset is definitely one of the main things that excel you or decline you. And over the COVID break, I feel like I got time to think about it and watch the games at home and stuff like that. So I feel like that helped me.
“I feel like through this whole COVID thing with the Cavs, how we started missing pieces and stuff, I feel like I had become more of an aggressive player throughout this whole process,” Mobley said. “And I feel like that helps the team even more, and I just want to do whatever helps team the most. So that’s what I’m trying to step up and do.”
Stepping up is exactly what Mobley is doing for the Cavs. In four games since his return from protocols, the youngster is averaging 20.8 points, 7.3 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 1.2 blocks. Talk about dominant. On the season, the 20-year-old is dropping 14.7 points and grabbing 8.2 boards per night.
Cleveland is, unfortunately, dealing with a few notable absences in their backcourt, with Ricky Rubio out for the year after tearing his ACL and Collin Sexton still sidelined with a knee injury of his own. While the Cavs did go out and trade for Rajon Rondo, Mobley is going to be relied upon to keep producing in their scary frontcourt alongside Jarrett Allen and Lauri Markkanen. And by the sounds of it, he’s poised to do so. We could be looking at the future of this franchise.