Lean and Green
Rookie Big Man Evan Mobley Wraps Up His First Official Practice as a Cavalier
by Joe Gabriele (@CavsJoeG)
9/28/21 | Cavs.com
Imagine that things will all work out how we expect them to for Evan Mobley, the No. 3 pick of the Wine & Gold in this most recent Draft.
Let’s say that years from now, he’ll have made multiple All-Star appearances, that he rewrites the record books for a Cavs big man and maybe even helps lift another Larry O’Brien trophy in Cleveland.
After his first official career practice – and the first of two on Tuesday – Evan Mobley sat for the first of what’ll be many appearances in front of the local media.
With the first question, Cleveland.com’s outstanding reporter Chris Fedor (who Spanish Broadcaster Rafa Hernandez-Brito and I call “El Perro” [“The Dog”] for his tenaciousness on all subjects from sports to politics to “The Bachelor”) tossed him a first-day-of-school softball: “Evan, how was your first practice?”
And the 20-year-old gave the perfect rookie answer. (When he’s a grizzled, accomplished Cavalier veteran one day, it’ll be funny to look back on a day like today – like watching family movies.)
The soft-spoken seven-footer – who blocked six shots three times in college last year – said: “It was a great first practice, I learned a lot. Coach was teaching a lot of our defensive schemes and how we’re going to play this year. And the second half of practice, we started going over our offense. Some of it was from Summer League and some of it was kind of new. So, I’m just trying to learn.”
Perfecto.
Evan Mobley swatted 95 shots in 33 games as a freshman at USC.
Joe Scarnici via Getty Images
And learning is one of the young man’s strong suits. J.B. Bickerstaff – who’s fielded a Fedor question or two himself – praised the former Trojan’s mental acuity on Day One.
”(Mobley) was great,” said Bickerstaff, going into his third season as head coach. “The practice this morning, it was a lot of teaching, and that’s one of his strengths – he picks up things extremely quickly. You can tell him (something) one time, and he can explain it to other people. That’s how quickly he picks it up.
”So, he was good. He was good, he was sharp. We’ll do a little banging tonight and see how it goes. But he was great to begin with.”
Things have moved quickly for the youngster. The NBA Draft was in late July this year, followed by Summer League, followed by Camp. And in one week, he’ll be under the bright lights in Chicago.
”This whole entire Training Camp is very fast,” said Mobley. “Preseason is coming up pretty quick; the season as well. I feel like all this stuff, you have to learn to learn fast. But I feel like that benefits me a lot.”
Mobley learned quickly in his single season with USC – earning Pac-12 Player of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year and Freshman of the Year honors as a collegian. He took the Trojans to the Elite Eight before losing to then-undefeated Gonzaga. In 33 games at Southern Cal, he swatted 95 shots.
But he’ll have to take the next step, and that means physically as well. To take the 82-game grind of an NBA season, the svelte Mobley will need to pack on some weight and muscle.
"You have to learn to learn fast."
”I feel like I gain weight pretty fast; it’s just that maintaining the weight is hard because we play so many games and have so many practices,” said Mobley. “I’ve set in place some different things with the weight coach and the coaches to gain and maintain. So, I feel like we have a good plan for that. And it’s just going to come with time.”
Mobley will take some of that frontline NBA punishment, but he’ll be spared some of that wear-and-tear at the center spot. Jarrett Allen – who’ll start in the middle and spoke on Media Day about adding weight and muscle himself – will draw the opponent’s starting 5.
But as Coach Bickerstaff emphasized on Tuesday, the Cavaliers – who also added seven-footer Lauri Markkanen this summer – plan to be very versatile this year, mixing and matching lineups.
”I think what you’re seeing around the league is people are playing position-less basketball, as long as they have skill,” said Bickerstaff. “We can put a group of guys on the floor have ball skills and shooting skills, and I think that’s an advantage for us. We talk about the progression of this team, and the modernization of this team. I think that’s where it can start, and it can be really effective.”
Much of the modernization of the Wine & Gold will begin with their unicorn – and their highest Draft choice since taking Andrew Wiggins with the top overall pick in 2014. In one week, he’ll likely face off against another former Trojan – Nikola Vucevic – at points during the preseason opener. And he’ll get an up-close look at how far he has to go.
It’ll be here before the youngblood knows it – and continue to move rapidly from there.
”I feel like the most difficult part (of this process) is how fast everything comes,” said Mobley. “Because the Draft was pretty close, moving out here – there’s so many things to do. And I feel like the easiest part is how (my teammates) all accepted me. They were all nice and comforting and they brought me into the family really easily.
”It was a nice, smooth transition.”