58 games into the season I think it's safe to say we've seen enough to make the claim that these Cavaliers are one of the best teams in recent NBA history and I'd argue that the biggest difference between this year and last has been Evan mbly taking that next leap not just into an Allstar but into a legitimate all NBA caliber player as things currently stand he's one of the top two favorites to win defensive player of the year and it's on that side of the ball where he's always made his Mark of course it starts with his ability to protect the rim he's officially listed as 6'1 and that sheer size alone allows him to stand tall and offer a serious presence down low with the height he's got a 7' 4 wingspan and those freakishly long arms allow him to just erase finishing angles I'd say it's the athleticism at his size that's most impressive though he's a very explosive leaper off of 2 feet and the way he Springs off the court with little to no momentum almost looks like he's on a trampoline as a result he's able to have really unique timing as a shot Blocker on this one both of his feet are still on the ground when donon Wright releases a layup yet he's still able to get to it that also means he has an elite second jump so on a play like this where he commits to one threat and leaves his feet he can recover to a second threat and and get just as much lift when you have that much size length and verticality and you're also great at targeting the ball that's how you end up with a guy like Moy who can completely dictate an offense's ability to score in the paint on the season he's averaging two blocks every 75 possessions good for 13th in the NBA among players with at least 1,000 minutes but I'd argue that doesn't even do his Rim protection Justice he's tested 378 shots within 6 ft the eighth most of any player and on those shots players have converted almost 10% below their typical average that's enough to make him one of the best paint defenders in the league and it's enough to make offensive players think twice about going up in his vicinity giving you that deterring effect with that said though the drawback of moving in the way that he does with the length is that he's got a pretty skinny frame and is a little bit more prone to bullyball I don't really view him as the type of big you can leave on an island and expect to shut down postup guys in those situations he tends to rely on help Defenders loading up early and that way he can use those long arms to contest shots over the top but don't get me wrong he does have some good possessions against Elite bigs this time he's on yic in single coverage and he's quick enough to stick with a drive then gets a hand up to make it a tougher look however I do think that Jared Allen's clearly the best post offender on Cleveland and he's more of a traditional anchor big so when those two share the floor together more times than not Mo's operating behind the play like a free safety they usually like to match him up with the opposing team's weakest spot up shooter in this case Russell Westbrook and he'll just freely roam the floor to either protect the rim or take away the middle of the floor on drives without having to worry about covering to his man and in these spots he makes a lot of great reads here's one where Allen plays the ball in a hedge while yabu s pops into open space on the wing Moy as the low man is forced into a two-on-one situation and he immediately Springs into position right between them to not give up a pass while still making yabu think twice about a triple the reason this works so well is because of the amount of ground he's able to cover as an athlete anytime he helps in the paint it takes very little effort for him to get right back to his man on the perimeter meaning he's able to cover both layups and threes if you wanted to point to one flaw of his in these spots though I'd say he does have a slight tendency to overhelmed but Mo kind of just hangs around the block instead of getting back to the corner so it's an easy kick out to Jonathan Isaac who's left with a warm-up triple more times than not though he's pretty sharp with his rotations and knows which plays to make on this one Horford drives Baseline and Moy very clearly recognizes the threat but instead of committing to the ball he gets into the lane then follows a pass into a contest on Jaylen Brown this time he's matched up with Derek white as the Lowman and when Tatum gets downhill he's forced to step in front of a drive then the Cavs are going to execute what's called an xout with Garland closing to the corner and Mobly closing to the wing Horford tries to attack the close out only for Moy to stay in front and block a layup Mo's ability to not only cover the ground needed on Closeouts but contain attacks and stay glued to the ball on drives is something we basically never see from someone of his size which is a testament to his versatility if you watch defend in space he really moves like a wing not only is he quick laterally he's got fluid hips which allows him to consistently close off driving Lanes in my opinion it's his body control that makes him such a complete outlier it's one thing to stick with drives it's an entirely different thing to shift your momentum to stick with quick guards and not give them even an inch of room to work with then after showcasing the mobility and body control to stay stay in front of attacks if anyone tries to score over the top they're met by one of those long arms as a result he's capable of matching up with the best forwards in the league this time he's guarding LeBron and you can see that agility and hit Mobility as he cuts off two different angles then absorbs some contact and forces a travel here's one where he's up against Tatum and once again he moves his feet to stay in front of a drive absorbs a bump to the chest and recovers to get a hand up on the jumper it can't be overstated how valuable it is for your starting four to be this versatile the Cavs have a defensive chess piece that very few teams if any can match in one of their games at the beginning of the season they actually used him as the primary defender on France Vagner and he didn't just hold his own he played legitimately Elite defense from start to finish France couldn't get anything going towards the rim because of Mo's agility and he was forced into tough looks over the top all night but Mo's presence as a perimeter Defender isn't exclusive to bigger Wings here's one where he's matched up with Jaylen Brunson cuts off two different attempts at an attack and forces the offense to reset entirely and when he's defending quicker guards it's not like he sags off with a cushion of space to prepare for their speed here's one against Dame where he actually presses up to the ball nearly 30 feet out shuts off a drive then sticks with a step back to force a smothered long two when it comes to defending on the perimeter I'd say Mo's lone weakness is that he doesn't really know how to navigate screens which some teams can take advantage of by having a smaller guy set one and force the switch onto a mismatch but outside of that the Cavs are 100% comfortable with Moy defending just about anyone in the league in isolation and they'll live with the results of those plays and that gives him so much versatility when defending the pick and roll because if they want to they can switch every action and not have to worry about him being attacked but remember he's also an elite rim protector who can cover a ton of ground so he can also execute any traditional coverage with just as much Effectiveness Allen and Mobly start and close games together everything in between is a stagger though which means he spends a lot of time as the lone big I wouldn't say he's quite the drop Defender that Allen is but he's turned himself into a very capable one something I really like about his drop defense is how much he prioritizes the ball he doesn't let guards step into uncontested mid-range jumpers or drive to the paint without seeing a body at all times and because of his agility it feels like he's never out of position on this one he's getting ready to defend a left-hand screen but but when Kula Bali rejects it on a right-hand drive he immediately Springs into that lane to protect the rim with that said though in most of these minutes of Moy at the five the Cavs like to just switch everything so that they can keep a body in front of the ball and prevent a numbers advantage that takes me right back to the discussion of Mo's switch ability he isn't a mismatch so they can switch as many actions as they want to keep him in front of the ball and the offense won't find that Advantage they're looking for off of screens I actually think Mo's ability to play the five not just well but at a legitimately Elite level is probably his strongest case for defensive player of the year in lineups with Allen he does it all from roaming behind the play as a free safety to running Shooters off the line and switching across the board but in lineups without Allen he's often the only rim protector on the floor sometimes even the only above average Athlete on the floor and those units still produce shockingly good defensive results if we exclude garbage time Moy and Allen have played about 1,400 minutes together over the last two seasons and during those minutes the Cavs have had a 11. 9 defensive rating in over 2300 minutes that Allen has played Without Moy that number has remained at 113 and in 1,400 minutes that Moy has played Without Allen they've actually improved to 110 for reference the League's average during that span has been 115. 6 so those Mobly minutes are really good I actually want to dive a little deeper though because it's truly remarkable how much he's raising some of these lineups like I said they've had a 110 defensive rating when m's on the floor without Allen that means they could still have another big versatile body in Dean Wade but but if we also take him off the floor that number is still 111.
3 well they could still have another Elite perimeter defender in Isaac aoro but if we take him off as well that number is right back to the original 113 in the last two seasons he's played 757 minutes without any of the team's other three best defenders and those lineups have produced a well above average defense so if the combination of Rim protection switchability and overall role versatility wasn't enough to sell you on his Cas for defensive player of the year maybe the numbers can get you there if not he's at worst a top three or so candidate and in my opinion is inarguably a top 10 defender in the NBA what's so crazy to me though is that this Elite defensive value isn't anything new I'd say this has been his best defensive season but he entered the league and was already an all-nba caliber Defender as a rookie when we talk about a leap from Evan Mobley we're referring to what he's turned into on the offensive side of the ball this season and how that's completely changed his ceiling as a player because he's often sharing the floor with a non-shooting big in Jared Allen one of the most important pieces of the team's offense is finding ways to keep up the spacing in years past that typically meant playing Mo out of the dunker spot where he can rely on his athleticism to not only finish plays but get on the offensive glass and create second chance opportunities playing a lot like a traditional big man Kenny Atkinson made some changes though instead of starting Moy in the dunker he's moved him further out to the Deep corner so that he can freely operate along the entire Baseline this change comes with a much improved and more confident an outside shot which I'll talk about in a bit but the idea was to put the low man in a tough position where if they want to bring help to the middle they also have to worry about Moy diving behind them for easy offense and he has incredible timing on these Cuts so he's able to effectively space the floor while Allen's a good enough passer to consistently find him on these big to Big connections speaking of big to Big passing Moy can just as easily find Allen in the dunker so a lot of times you'll see them reverse the roles the problem with using Allen in the dunker instead is that he's usually the one who's being defended by the team's primary rim protector but Mo sort of mitigates that issue through his ability to finish over even the game's best shot blockers he's aggressive incredibly athletic and most importantly has great touch so he's able to score through traffic at the basket very well this season 51 players have attempted at least 200 shots at the rim and of those 51 Mo's been the second most efficient making a remarkable 76 12% of them so when he catches the ball in the short roll he's the type of guy who the defense has to collapse on then if there's no lob or drop off to Allen he'll kick it out to a shooter for a high quality three of course this is arguably even more dangerous during those minutes with him as a lone big because Cleveland can surround him with four highlevel Shooters giving him the entire paint to work with with that said though I'm more intrigued by Mo's versatility off of screens and in particular the way he's been working on his ability to pop into open space for three-point shots of his own here's one where he's on the floor with Allen and after handing the ball off to Garland he pops out to the wing he looks for the three draws an aggressive close out and attacks it on his way to easy point if he becomes a guy who's drawing those sorts of contests we can all go home I don't think he's there yet but the shooting development has been awesome to see in his first 3 years in the NBA he consistently attempted about 1 and a half threes every 75 possessions well this year he's up to three and a half more than doubling the volume and that's a big enough number to make the defense at least pay attention to him some of those are tough off the dribble looks which is another thing Mo's experimenting with and could be a terrifying future development but I'm more so focused on those offthe catch opportunities whether that means spotting up in the corner on the wing or out of the pick and pop in the last two seasons he's attempted 184 catch and shoot threes so not a ton of volume but in that limited sample he's made 38. 6% of them we're talking about a guy who can make the defense pay for leaving him open as as a result he does occasionally draw those more aggressive Closeouts and in addition to the unique combination of size athleticism in touch he's also a good enough ball handler to punish defenses as an attacker I don't just mean straight line drives either here's one where his initial angle gets closed off and he quickly redirects into a new Lane then finds some space to take off for one of the best dunks of the season I think now would be a great time to mention that for all of the changes to floor spacing and the shooting development the biggest difference for Moy has been that Atkinson simply put the ball in his hands more that really stands out in transition his combination of size athleticism handle and touch is really only mashed by Giannis so he's pretty lethal in the open floor and in those spots not only is he a threat to create for himself if he draws multiple Defenders he'll find the open man even in the half court though where whereas in years past it felt like Moy could sometimes struggle to attack mismatches now he's a legitimate option for isolations I will say his back to the basket game is still super raw and probably the area where I'd expect the most future development the drawback of so much fluidity is that he isn't the sturdiest or most physically imposing guy when it comes to strength and he isn't too comfortable going to his left hand out of the post so he struggles to create easy shots for himself however when it comes to his face up game he's pretty close to having the entire package the handle and athleticism are just so tough to contain and even if a Defender is able to stay in front of him he's still a big threat to score not just because he can finish over the top but because he's implemented counters like this sharp spin to get into a jump hook as a result when he attacks in isolation help Defenders are often forced to react act and that's when he'll get back to making plays for others because of the ball handling and passing capability the Cavs have sort of molded Moy into a point forward within their offense he brings the ball up a lot and they like to have wings screen for him at the top of the key so that he can turn the corner and attack open space as a driver thanks to his unique skill set defenses are often forced into an impossible spot if they decide to switch like I said he's become really good at punishing mismatches and I should also mention that if his Defender tries to overplay the side of the screen he's also a threat to reject it while his length allows him to just cover so much ground in the paint in the event that he's setting up a ball screen rejects it but gets cut off that's when you'll see those counters with the footwork in touch to still create a quality shot for himself so some defenses choose to avoid Mo's paint presence altogether by putting two on the ball but he's a good passer so the Cavs are often left with wideopen threes to me there's really only one major flaw when it comes to Mo's on ball attack and it's the complete lack of a mid-range jumper there are a lot of situations where defenses responds to these ball screens by sitting way back in the paint and he rarely ever makes them pay on the season he's shooting just 36% from the mid-range good for the 21st percentile among all players and getting that to even 42% would open up so much more for him not just in the pick and roll but in isolation as another counter for when his driving Lanes get taken away it would also help grow his game away from the ball something the Cavs have explored is running Mo off of down screens inside the ark and often times he has an open jumper but instead tries to force the issue on a drive don't get me wrong though if he catches that ball with space to attack good luck stopping him from getting wherever he wants to go in the paint it's no secret that most of Mo's scoring is done around the basket but the way he gets those opportunities is so much more layered than in years past whereas he used to pretty exclusively score off of lobs and putbacks now he's diving into cutting Lanes attacking off the catch creating an isolation or off of screens and this is a huge deal because with the uptick in volume he's has also improved his efficiency on the season he's averaging about 22 1/2 points per 75 on over 64% true shooting the only other player in the NBA who exceeds both of those marks is Nica yic who's arguably the best offensive player ever so Mo's been incredibly effective as a scorer he's a pretty good passer and he offers that lineup flexibility between the four and five as a result he's had a high impact on one of the best offensive teams ever the Cavs right now have an offensive rating that is 8.
