Averaging 3 more rebounds, more blocks, more assists and a better ft % on more attempts pg than last season. His fg% is down but expect that to go up once JA returns.
People really sweating for nothing. He’ll be fine.
Also he’s 22 and if someone else says “oh but LeBron led us to the finals at 22” I’ll cry
You’re missing the point: he’s been playing with 3-4 starters/6th men in these games. You should expect counting stats to increase, yet we’re seeing them be static. We expected an increase in efficiency/percentages, but we’re not really seeing that to an appreciable level yet.
This is a dude who was once labeled, not just by us, but by the national media, as potentially being the best player in the NBA in the future. We should have high expectations for him and his growth, and these five games should have been a great time for him to showcase his improvement, and it’s fallen flat. You have to wonder about his drive, his motor, since he refuses to take the reins right now alongside Mitchell. There are plenty of guard/big man duos that dominate together. That should have been what we’ve seen with Mitchell+Mobley so far.
We can’t make excuses of “bad matchups.” Superstars should dominate anyone, not be dominated by the likes of Mitchell Robinson. If you watch him on defense, he is pathetically weak, and his positioning for rebounding is terrible. It’s way too easy for big men to bully him down there and maneuver for the rebound and beat him. Many of us keep saying: “wait till he gets bigger.” What if he doesn’t? KG never did.
While I see your points and accept some, just want to address the ‘next best player’ = high expectations thing.
Kid is 22, still building his body up and has so far this season been playing at the C (which he hasn’t done much of).
He’s been very solid for us in his first two seasons and straight up spectacular defensively - came close to a dpoy in his sophomore season. Just because kneejerk NBA media labels him as ‘the next best thing’ doesn’t mean we should be expecting 25 and 15 out of him in his third season when he shares the court with other stars too. Some nights he’s not going to even have to explode offensively.
I will say I don’t think he’s aggressive enough at the moment and he doesn’t get enough looks but I also think some of that is to do with JB not scheming for him much (he barely schemes anything really). I think if we had a better coach we’d see him flourish more.
I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: age can’t and won’t always be an excuse. LeBron took the Cavs to the finals at 22, Derrick Rose won MVP at 22. I’m not saying he’s the next LeBron, and I’m not saying we should expect him to be. But at some point we should expect him to be a focal point, to become an all around star, an all-star. It is possible for someone young to ascend to stardom, and I think we all hoped Mobley would be taking a massive step up this year on offense.
Further, I disagree that Mobley had a good game last night. I watched him down low almost exclusively and he just gets bodied, bullied, and out smarted constantly on rebounding. Robinson and Hartenstein were literally shoving him around at will. He once got shoved five feet out of bounds Uber the hoop. He’s not even trying to box out, and he lets himself get into terrible positioning on the rebounding. If he boxed out, and was in the right spots, we wouldn’t be giving up so many offensive rebounds. He’s still great when a guard drives at him, or when he faces up his man with the ball, but he’s got to be more aggressive down there once the ball has been shot.