The book is out on how to play against Evan and Jarrett. Get strong guys with lower center of gravity, and just push and bulldoze them all over the place. When they get the ball just slap, grab and claw the hell out of them. The refs allow it all day long so why not?
I agree that the traditional low post NBA bigman can challenge Even and Jarrett. But at the same time, those "low center of gravity guys" are not usually good at defending in space. Seems like the Cavs should be able to scheme them off the floor using Mobley's outside shooting or Allen's pick and roll game. Having a PG & Wing that can hit their 3pt shots is kind of necessary to make that work though, so you might have to sit Okoro & Rondo to make that work.
Here's a great write up about Mobley (and Allen, btw)
For much of NBA history, building an elite defensive team came down to simply employing one of the league’s handful of generational defensive bigs. Bill Russell…
fivethirtyeight.com
Mobley, meanwhile, is what the term “unicorn” is meant for in sports. At 20 years old and in his first pro season, it’s obvious watching him that he’s still learning the nuances of NBA defense — and yet he’s a consensus top-15 impact defender in all our metrics.
Rim protection? Easy. Mobley is allowing a field-goal percentage of 52.5 as the primary rim defender, one of the 15 lowest numbers in the league (among players with at least 100 field goals defended) — just decimals below teammate Allen and on more attempts against.
Defending in space? Not a problem. Guards can sometimes beat him with a quick first step, but he’s so long and fluid that he’s often back in the picture before they expect it: (video clips)
The Cleveland Cavaliers allow under 0.8 points per chance on any possession featuring an isolation against Mobley that ends in a shot, foul or turnover, per Second Spectrum; that number is still elite even when filtered only for quicker guards like LaVine, Trae Young or Devin Booker. He’s already a fully switchable weapon.
Cavs coach J.B. Bickerstaff has even experimented with Mobley as the top-of-the-key hub for Cleveland’s occasional zone defense. The numbers are uneven — largely because, again, Mobley is still learning. Still, you see possessions on which the length of Mobley and his teammates, combined with such an unusual defensive alignment, are flummoxing good offenses: (video clips)
Few players in modern history, if any, have held such a high defensive ceiling at this age. His presence near the top of several quality metrics at such an early stage of his career, even as he clearly digests elements of defense in real time, should terrify 29 other teams.
