Next season is a big campaign for Cleveland Cavaliers star Evan Mobley.
NBA analyst Grant Hughes of Bleacher Report believes Evan Mobley is the Cleveland Cavaliers player "with the most to prove" next season.
Mobley has been with the Cavaliers since 2021. He holds career averages of 16.7 points, 9.0 rebounds, 3.0 assists, 0.8 steals and 1.6 blocks per game. The USC product won the 2024-25 Defensive Player of the Year Award.
"Mobley is easily one of the best players we'll highlight here, but even the league's top talents have questions to answer," Hughes wrote. "Mobley enters the second season of his five-year, 30-percent max contract coming off what, for him, was a disappointing effort. The 37.0 percent accuracy from deep he showed in 2024-25 abandoned him, his defense slipped from his all-world standards and his free-throw shooting cratered to a career-worst 60.6 percent.
"An All-Star, an All-NBA second-teamer and the Defensive Player of the Year in his fourth season, Mobley collected no hardware in his fifth. Obviously, a player with as many awards and accolades as Mobley has earned in his early career has already proved plenty. But for the Cleveland Cavaliers to get where they want to go, he still has to prove he's a perennial All-NBA, All-Defense superstar worthy of his salary."
The Cavaliers made the Eastern Conference Finals this year for the first time since 2018. They lost to the New York Knicks in four games and Mobley was outplayed by Karl-Anthony Towns.
Cleveland wasn't interested in trading Mobley to the Milwaukee Bucks for Giannis Antetokounmpo, who got traded to the Miami Heat. The Cavaliers also had no interest in trading Mobley for Jaylen Brown, who got traded to the Philadelphia 76ers. The 76ers then signed Dean Wade and LeBron James.
Mobley is under major pressure to play like a superstar next season. If he doesn't, the Cavaliers will regret not moving him for Brown or Antetokounmpo, two former Finals MVPs.
Without LeBron, Cleveland's core remains the same: James Harden, Donovan Mitchell, Mobley and Jarrett Allen. We'll see if that core can get over the hump next season.
Cleveland opens next season against LeBron and the 76ers in Philadelphia. That will be an electric atmosphere.
