Evan Mobley Makes Cavaliers History Winning Defensive Player of the Year

The Cleveland Cavaliers pride themselves on their elite defense, which carried them to the playoffs this season.

At the center of their defensive identity is Evan Mobley, who's proved himself to be one of the best defenders in the NBA.

The Cavaliers forward was one of three nominees to win the Defensive Player of the Year Award, and it was announced on Thursday that Mobley had won the award over Atlanta Hawks' Dyson Daniels and Golden State Warriors' Draymond Green.

YOUR 2024-25 DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR, EVAN MOBLEY. #LetEmKnow pic.twitter.com/dPpyhEtmfx
— Cleveland Cavaliers (@cavs) April 24, 2025

Mobley also made franchise history, as this is the first time in Cavaliers history that a member of the Wine and Gold has won the prestigious award.

The All-Star forward is a more than deserving player to win the award. Mobley finished with a defensive rating of 108, recording 1.4 steals a game and blocked 2.5 shots a contest during the regular season.

After Cleveland's Game 2 win over the Miami Heat on Wednesday, Donovan Mitchell briefly talked about why Mobley is such an important part of Cleveland's defense.

"He's done it all year in many different facets. He's done it on guards, bigs, wings. He's out anchor down there," said Mitchell.

"For him to be as young as he is, to understand angles, understand different things, understand different things help side being in different places, that's a talent in itself. I don't know what the numbers are. I really could care less because y'all saw when he didn't play this year, we lost games. You look at the impact on our group."

Mobley is still just 23-years-old and continues to get better each season. He's just scratching the surface of the elite player he can be.

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