On Tuesday evening, the Cleveland Cavs laid an egg in Game 1 of their series against the Detroit Pistons to open up the second round of the playoffs, losing by a score of 111-101 on the road. Virtually no one played well for the Cavs on offense in this game, with the majority of the blame being directed at James Harden and Donovan Mitchell, each of whom shot well below 50 percent from the field.
However, recently, former NBA point guard Jeff Teague took to the Club 520 podcast to call out another player: Cavs power forward Evan Mobley, who has been a bit underwhelming so far in these playoffs.
“…We always talk about James Harden and Donovan Mitchell, then Evan Mobley kinda just sneaks by everybody. Be like they got Evan Mobley too. Like, at some point Evan Mobley if these two dudes Donovan Mitchell and James Harden are not having good nights, you’re on like a max deal, you’re supposed to have a 36 point night, 37 point night,” said Teague, per NBA Courtside on X, formerly Twitter.
Cavs fans and NBA pundits alike have been projecting a superstar leap on Mobley for multiple years now, but thus far, nothing has materialized on that front.
That’s not to say that Mobley isn’t still an integral part of what the Cavs do on both sides of the ball. He won a Defensive Player of the Year award last year, and is still very versatile on offense. However, Mobley’s perimeter shooting has fallen off a cliff in recent months, and he hasn’t shown the ability to take over games when the team’s two offensive engines don’t have it going, as Teague pointed out.
If the Cavs want to win this series, they’ll need to get more out of a lot of players, with Mobley being near the top of the list.