OKC Thunder Giddy among special rookie performances in week 9
No. 5- Evan Mobley – Cleveland Cavaliers
Not a great week for the big man who was suffering from a sore hip and then entered COVID protocols. Evan Mobley played a single game with nine points, five rebounds, three assists, and two steals.
The combination of his hip and probably already feeling the ill effects of the virus likely impacted his shooting as he struggled from the field (3 of 11) for 27.3 percent and failed to attempt any perimeter shots.
Rookie category rankings:
- Blocks: 1.8 – first
- Double-Doubles: seven (first of the elite five)
- Rebounds: 8.3 – tied first (Barnes)
- Minutes per game: 33.6 – second
- Field Goals Made: 5.4 – fourth
- Offensive rebounds: 1.7 – fifth
- Points: 13.8 – fifth
- Turnovers: 1.6 – eighth
- Assists: 2.5 – eighth
- Steals: 0.9 – tied ninth
- Field Goal Percent: 47.4% (second of elite five)
- 3-point field goal percent: 33.3% (third of elite five)
It was also only the fourth time in his 25 games he failed to block a shot. Still, he had an impact on the court defensively. While the Heat was missing both Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo making the victory easier but Mobley still brought his typical defensive effort.
Mobley remains the leading candidate to win Rookie of the Year with his strongest competition coming from Scottie Barnes and the rising Cade Cunningham.
Although he’s not leading many rookie categories it’s partially semantics as his effect on the hardwood is palpable. He moves with grace belying his height and length and processes the game with an IQ that begs the question “are you sure you’re a rookie?”.
Wins and his specific impact on Cleveland winning is another factor why he’s ahead of Barnes. Although a surprising stat is the Cavs and Raps perform similarly versus the top four seeds in each conference. Prior to Toronto getting smacked by omicron I dove into this dynamic. When OG Anunoby returned I wondered if Toronto could make a move upward and if that would impact the RoY race.
The challenge became trying to track who held the fourth seed in the East as the Cavs, Bucks, and Heat all jockeyed back and forth daily between third, fourth, and fifth. Depending on who was in fourth it dramatically impacted the Cavs record — they were 2-8 if the Heat were fifth but when they moved into fourth it shifted their record to 4-8 as Cleveland beat Miami twice (without Bam Adebayo/Jimmy Butler). The Raptors haven’t played Miami yet so in the same scenarios the Raptors were 3-7 but now would be 3-6 with the Cavs falling to fifth.
To that end, the virus will likely also rob fans of the second Mobley versus Barnes matchup (December 26th). The last time they played Barnes delivered the better overall performance but Mobley got the one-point win.
Of course, now we’ll have to wait to see how the virus impacts the Raptors with seven of their top eight players in quarantine (all five starters) and whether they’ll be able to pick up right where they left off.
This season isn’t typical due to the truncated offseason and ongoing pandemic. That leaves a large group jumbled in the center where one or two solid weeks or a five-game winning streak came vault a team from outside the play-in to a home-court seed and similarly could impact these year end rankings.
As such, I’m not ready to stamp the incredible Mobley as RoY (not yet).