Evan Mobley Becomes Fastest Cavaliers Player To Reach Major Defensive Milestone

With two blocks in an impressive 114-98 win over the Orlando Magic, Evan Mobley continues to rise the Cavaliers ranks as the best defender in team history.

He already has a Defensive Player of the Year award to his name, and now he’s beginning to climb into the record books.

The first block of the night was the 500th for his career. He becomes the fifth player in team history to reach that number, and is the youngest to do it.

Now Mobley would have a long way to go to ever claim the top spot in Cavaliers history, but the accomplishment is a great start for his career, as he is currently just in the midst of year five.

Mobley's chase to swat more blocked shots than any Cavaliers player

The franchise's all-time leader is Zydrunas Ilgauskas, who dominated the paint in Cleveland throughout the 2000s. He rejected 1,269 shots in his 12 seasons with the Cavaliers. He was a 2x all-star, and is typically regarded as the one of the best bigs in the team’s history.

Two other Cavalier legends reached over 1,000 career blocks with the franchise. Hot Rod Williams had 1,200 and Larry Nance Sr. had 1,087. Nance was the quickest player in team history to get over 1,000, doing it in 433 career games.

The final Cavaliers to record over 500 blocks is, of course, the great LeBron James. He had 695 while wearing a Cleveland jersey.

Mobley averages 1.6 blocks per game so far in his career. That number ties him with Ilgauskas, but puts him behind Williams (1.8) and Nance (2.5). Mobley is still younger than any other player was at this point. He’ll have a chance to keep breaking these kinds of records, though he may play more career games than the other Cavaliers.

Mobley is also one of the better offensive players of that elite defensive group. Mobley averages 16.6 points per game for his career, comparable to Nance’s 16.8. He is ahead of Ilgauskas (13.8) and Williams (12.9). In a more modern era, Mobley has had to be far more efficient than the others. He is well ahead of the other four in true shooting percentage.

The only offensive outlier is LeBron, who averaged 27.2 as a Cavalier. LeBron was also a more offensive-minded player compared to the others, getting over 500 blocks based more on longevity than a shot-blocking expertise (though he has some of the most memorable blocks in franchise history).

Mobley is averaging 2.0 blocks a game this season as he looks to repeat as a DPOY. He’ll have some tough competition with Victor Wembanyama, Chet Holmgren and Rudy Gobert, but there is no telling how much potential Mobley still has to become one of the most elite defenders the game has ever seen.