From a distance, everything looks calm in Cleveland. The wins are steady, no huge drama, nothing obviously falling apart. But look a bit closer and the cracks are starting to show especially with Darius Garland missing again.
The Cavaliers simply don’t look the same without their star point guard pulling the strings. Garland’s absence has sucked the life out of the offence, leaving Evan Mobley carrying far more of the load than he probably expected this early in the season.
Mobley’s numbers tell the story. He’s putting up career highs 18.8 points and 4 assists per game but the efficiency just hasn’t been there. The forward is shooting at just 55.5% true shooting, with 2.7 turnovers a game dragging him back. He’s producing more, just not better.
Last season was a different world entirely. Kenny Atkinson picked up Coach of the Year after Cleveland smashed the league with 64 wins and the NBA’s best offensive rating at 121.0. They outranked the Celtics and Thunder, looking like a genuine contender.
The hope was that Garland’s return this year would bring that spark back. Instead, three games in, he’s back on the injury list. Add Max Strus missing time, Ty Jerome gone in the summer, and suddenly Mobley is the main man whether he’s ready or not.
To be fair, Cleveland aren’t collapsed by any means. They sit mid pack in the league’s attacking metrics 13th in offensive rating, 14th in effective field goal percentage, 19th in true shooting. Not disastrous, but nowhere near last year’s pace.
The bigger question is whether Mobley can grow into that top tier offensive role or if the Cavs are wasting time by not developing him sooner. He was always going to need reps to evolve, but you wonder why the club didn’t give him this responsibility earlier.
For now they’re holding steady in the East, but without Garland healthy and without Mobley tightening up his finishing, Cleveland risk slipping from dark-horse contender to just another middle table playoff team.