CLEVELAND — With the changed format of the event, there won’t be five starters for each conference in this year’s NBA All-Star Game. Ten players will still get elected for the theoretical honour, though. Evan Mobley could be one of them.
Mobley, the Cleveland Cavaliers’ big man, won’t get there on the strength of the fan vote, as he was eighth among Eastern Conference frontcourt players when the league announced the second returns Thursday.
However, the media and players’ votes could push him forward. Giannis Antetokounmpo and Jayson Tatum will be ahead of him, but Mobley should be right there with Karl-Anthony Towns and Jaylen Brown for the third starting spot.
The Cavaliers came into Thursday’s 132-126 win over the Toronto Raptors with the league’s best record, best offensive rating, second-best net rating and eighth-best defensive rating. Mobley’s advanced stats continue to creep up across the board, from player efficiency rating to win shares per minute to true shooting percentage. He is the most impactful defender of the three candidates, which could make up for his comparatively ordinary per-game stats: 19 points, 8.8 rebounds and 3.1 assists.
As crucially as anything else, he is taking 3.3 3-point attempts per 36 minutes, up from 1.4 in each of his first three years. He is hitting 40.4 percent of them. It is not a huge number, but any bump in frequency and accuracy matters with the Cavaliers, who also play Jarrett Allen, a paint-patrolling centre.
BOOM. @evanmobley | #LetEmKnow https://t.co/XOck0dKwJ2 pic.twitter.com/OKbzyHLCjK
— Cleveland Cavaliers (@cavs) January 10, 2025
“Starter” or not, Mobley should be in San Francisco. He has been so good that with Wednesday’s marquee game against the Oklahoma City Thunder on the line, Cleveland coach Kenny Atkinson drew up an isolation for him, not Donovan Mitchell or Darius Garland, to swing things.
“I just keep saying I don’t think we’ve completely unlocked him. I’m still personally a little frustrated ’cause I know there’s a lot more,” Atkinson said before Thursday’s game. “And you have this immense talent. Do we put him in more inverted pick-and-rolls? Is it more (isolations)? Should we have him be in pick-and-pop (situations) … more so he’s shooting six to eight 3s? We’re still trying to figure him out. But the talent, it’s immense. I don’t even think the league realizes it.”
Comparison is the thief of joy. The 2021 NBA Draft class looks like a good one, and the stars will likely circle one another, sticking their heads just past those of their peers, for years. Cade Cunningham, Franz Wagner, Jalen Suggs and Alperen Şengün, among others, are all becoming marquee players in their own ways.
But it’s Mobley and Toronto’s Scottie Barnes who seem especially linked — maybe because they were picked third and fourth or maybe because they were so close in Rookie of the Year voting in 2022. Right now, Mobley has everything going for him, while doubting Barnes is in fashion.
As the Cavaliers failed to meet expectations in the regular season last year, there was some question as to whether Mobley’s potential had been overrated coming into and during his rookie year. Mobley was a part of the Cavaliers’ defining geometry problem. Barnes, meanwhile, got the keys from Raptors management to lead a rebuild and made his first All-Star Game.
He won’t make his second this year. Two injuries, a broken orbital bone and a sprained ankle, have already cost Barnes 13 games. The Raptors are just 6-19 in the games in which he has played. Barnes isn’t the primary reason for that, as his per-game stats are right around where they were last year. But a few of his advanced stats are down, most notably win shares per minute. His long-range shooting has not improved, and his turnovers leaped up when he was the lead creator during Immanuel Quickley’s absence.
Barnes looks more comfortable in the midrange, especially with a burgeoning turnaround jumper. He hit one over Mobley in the third quarter. He was great against the Cavaliers, with 24 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists. He has not dominated like that very often.
VOTE SCOTTIE FOR ALL-STAR ➡️ https://t.co/E2KGvNIVFb pic.twitter.com/HUKQgy3Z7N
— Toronto Raptors (@Raptors) January 10, 2025
Every Raptors starter has missed time, and because of Barnes’ all-around game, he often has to absorb many of the responsibilities of whoever is missing on any given evening. It is unfair to say the Raptors are bad, therefore Barnes cannot be the best player on a good team.
If Barnes were a more impactful player in a primary role, though, wouldn’t the Raptors be better?
“I think he’s now trying to figure out what it looks like playing with Quickley and RJ (Barrett) and (Jakob Poeltl all) on the court and who has what responsibilities,” Raptors coach Darko Rajaković said. “With Quickley coming back, obviously the ball is going to be a little bit more in his hands now. (Barnes) is going to have … different opportunities. Is that rim runs and some early seals? Is that going to be some random post-ups?”
Tellingly, both coaches are dreaming of what else their fourth-year players might be able to do in the near future. The difference is the Cavaliers have the luxury of incrementally diversifying Mobley’s game. His jumps as a 3-point shooter and ballhandler have been measured. He squared up Raptors forward Chris Boucher and simply drove by him, and he also hit three of Cleveland’s 18 3s. He had 21 points, 11 rebounds and six assists.
“This year, he’s running a couple of more pick-and-rolls with him handling the ball,” Rajaković said. “It’s not high frequency, but it’s something that he’s adding to his game. His post-up game has improved a lot, as well. He’s just really starting to look like a man out there.”
Barnes has had to do a lot of everything. On Thursday, thanks to the ineffectiveness of backup centre Kelly Olynyk, he guarded Allen for multiple possessions. A night earlier, he logged some time on New York’s Towns.
He was the de facto point guard when Quickley was out with his elbow injury and still has many playmaking duties, if not as much responsibility to get the Raptors organized. He is counted on to guard on the perimeter sometimes and act as a back-line chaos agent when the Raptors have their defensive assignments in order in front of him, which doesn’t happen that often.
All of which is to say that if Barnes and Mobley swapped places, things would probably seem very different for both of them. In terms of foundational skills, Mobley’s defence, both inside and out, is the one that is easiest to see propping a team up for years. In a non-Wemby world, he could be a future Defensive Player of the Year. At this stage of Barnes’ career, it is tough to imagine him becoming a top-five player in the league on either end, even if Barnes has cited winning defensive hardware as a personal goal.
The idealized version of Barnes has never been about that, though. The hope with Barnes was, and remains, that he can become solid at everything and the Raptors can move him around the floor to suit their needs, like a queen on a chessboard. He offered some rim protection, fast-break orchestrating and isolation scoring down the stretch against a really good team Thursday. He cut into the paint and bullied the Cavaliers. He guarded Garland on the biggest possession of the game and forced him into a very difficult shot. Garland hit it.
DARIUS GARLAND. CLUTCH. 👌🥶
12 in a row for the 33-4 @cavs ‼️ pic.twitter.com/yzUsdhC7Xz
— NBA (@NBA) January 10, 2025
“Usually, I do a pretty good job of seeing the future,” Rajaković said. “I think Scottie, in this league, he’s going … to be averaging double-doubles. And I can see Scottie, a couple years from now … averaging (a) triple-double in this league.”
Mobley was excellent, too. He might not have had the highs that Barnes had, but he made several winning plays down the stretch, even if Garland supplied the heroics.
“He’s really talented defensively,” Barnes said of Mobley. “He has handles for his size, can dribble, can shoot the ball. He does so many things … really well for his size that just makes him super special.”
Getting caught up in the horse race of it all ignores the nature of basketball. Mobley is awesome and should have the chance to impact some massive games in May. Barnes’ Raptors are nowhere near that stage. Credit to Mobley for being such a mature player, able to be patient with his role so that the Cavaliers could evolve. Not all young players with his pedigree are able to do that.
Still, if both Mobley and Barnes are voted to be starters in the All-Star Game in two or three years, nobody should be surprised.
(Photo: David Richard / Imagn Images)
