Kenny Atkinson thinks Evan Mobley is a “wing/great”

The Cleveland Cavaliers face the New Orleans Pelicans tonight.

The first sip

Evan Mobley probably had the best three-minute stretch of his career in the second quarter of Monday's game against the Milwaukee Bucks.

Before the game, Cavs head coach Kenny Atkinson spoke about why he doesn't view Mobley as a traditional center.

“When you look at the greats in this league, you see they’ve just evolved,” Atkinson said. “Your traditional big (would) be put on the block or play pick-and-rolls all the time. (Evan) is more of a hybrid.

“He’s kind of like a wing/big. Is this possible? Because he handles the ball a lot more. So to me that means you have wing properties. I think that’s a good thing about playing wing.”

Mobley has demonstrated this versatility on defense throughout his career. The offensive side of the field is less clear, although he is making progress.

Although Mobley has wing skills, he hasn't always shown the ability to perform at his best when sharing the field with another center, as the Wings can do time and time again. When Jarrett Allen is also on the court, he does much better on offense, but the most damage comes when he is the only big player.

Still, it's difficult to refute Atkinson's overall point. Mobley has some of the skills required to play both very different roles.

“He can play pick-and-roll,” Atkinson said. “He can roll without it and copes with it. That's a lot of things in his bag. This makes it a kind of “big slash wing” or “wing slash big”. He fits into that category.”

Mobley has one of the most unique skillsets in the league. Bucks head coach Doc Rivers called Mobley “a version of Giannis (Antetokounmpo)” before the game. Although you can see some similarities, this comparison falls short for several reasons.

It's difficult to imagine something that you can't properly contextualize. The lack of comparisons to Mobley makes it difficult to figure out what the best version of his game looks like. Describing him as a “winger” is perhaps the best description anyone has ever used to describe his game, but it's not perfect.

Tune in to the Cavs game on Playback

Join me and Tony Pesta for our Cavs and Pelicans game playback live stream party tonight. You can do this at this link Here.

Look at this

Tony did a great job of breaking down what Darius Garland did well in Monday's showdown with Damian Lillard.

NBA schedule today

• Cavs at Pelicans – 8 p.m
• Pistons vs. Hornets – 7:00 p.m
• Magic vs. Pacers – 7 p.m

• Knicks vs. Hawks – 7:30 p.m

• Warriors vs. Celtics – 7:30 p.m., ESPN
• Spurs vs. Rockets – 8:00 p.m

• Lakers vs. Grizzlies – 8:00 p.m

• Bulls vs. Mavs – 8:30 p.m
• Thunder vs. Nuggets – 9 p.m
• Heat vs. Sun – 9 p.m

• 76ers vs. Clippers – 10 p.m., ESPN

• Raptors vs. Kings – 10 p.m

Links of the day