No he isn't clearly a better player. He plays on a better team. Just like Mobley's defense contributes to winning, ^^ That level of gravity also contributes to winning. Difference is Green is on a scrub NCAA D1 aged team.
I find comparing Mobley and green to b quite stupid and disingenuous Mobley is surround by a solid coach and an actual team. He isn't forced to carry the shooting load and has a simple role. Mobley isn't even the robin of the team. Sure Mobley does his job well and contributes to winning, but his team is already stacked. Green isn't contributing to wins bc even if he puts up 30 pts efficiently he has no coach, no pg and no bench. Green is doing a great job as the Scorer of the team while Mobley is doing a stellar job as a role player. If u swap players it would b a struggle for our team to hit 100 pts most nights.
Scorers scorer from everywhere. He has to have his “spots” on the court where he’s nearly automatic as a “ go-to” option for his game. See CP3’s free throw line jumper or Durant’s elbow jumper. Jordan’s post fade away. Dream’s jump hook and baseline fadeaway. These greats had this in their bag and it’s nothing wrong with Jabari adding it to his game.
Total BS. The entire argument about Mobley has MAJOR assumptions that he will improve his 3pt shot and that he will certainly become a defensive anchor. If we don't keep those assumptions, then we're talking about a PF who shoots 21% from 3 while left wide open a lot. On defense he is not the kingpin and in that C role has been mediocre in a small sample. If you are not projecting incredible things onto Mobley, then WTF are we even talking about here? A 16 points on 12 shots heavily assisted scorer who can guard F's? What are we refusing to accept exactly? What is he doing other than scoring very near the basket and a great defender of forwards only? That's the guy we're not celebrating enough? That's the guy that's better than the best scorer of the past 2 drafts? Give me a break. I can understand if you're not a Rockets fan and only saw 4 Jalen Green games, but not if you're watching both players. That's why even the people who are saying Mobley is better tend to insert a condition that says "doesn't mean Jalen won't be better in the future!".
As of right now nothing tells me that Mobley won't be anything more than a Rudy Golbert type of player which is great. That's worthy of a number 3 overall pick. Thats a a multiple times defensive player of the year level player. But people think even Donovan Mitchell is a more important player and he's the exact same archetype of players Green is but smaller.
I kind of think about it the inverse way (if I'm understanding you correctly). I'll acknowledge Mobley is certainly going to be a better offensive player than Gobert, the more concerning thing to me is I don't see how he can anchor a defense like Gobert. He has not at any point in his life shown he's great at being that C that protects the paint, and imo that's the bigger risk in his career. If he's not an AMAZING defender or he doesn't develop a very good 3pt shot, then he will not be worth more than $20-$25m in his career. On Jalen, if he's a 30ppg scorer who is a lazy defender he will still be worth $30m, that's the NBA. The top 10 scorers in the NBA regardless of defense: 1) Embiid (33.3ppg) 2) Doncic 3) Lillard 4) Shai 5) Giannis 6) Tatum 7) Mitchell 8) Brown 9) Irving 10) Morant (26.8ppg) 24) Jalen Green (22ppg, younger than every single player ranked higher) Are people telling us Jalen will be the first to flirt with 30ppg and not be worth the max in the market? The worst player in the top 10 is Kyrie Irving and he had to post an anti-semitic film, drive Harden out of town and voluntarily miss half his team's games in order for people to think about not giving him the max. Sorry Jabari fans, don't mean to flood the thread. Happy to continue the discussion in a Green/Mobley thread @fchowd0311 .
One last talking point and it really isn't a serious one but makes you kinda wonder. The Cavs have won every game this season where Mobley was out and that's two games.
It's pretty amazing how everyone that says this also completely forgets that the cavs were playing a center and 2 pfs in the starting lineup when Mobley first came to Cleveland and had none of their current scoring weapons, and they were still good. It's also pretty obvious that a versatile do everything 7 Footer that can guard 4 positions is more adaptable than a 6'6 shoot first guard with bad defense. Most people don't need pictures or thousands of words to figure that out. Green doesn't contribute as much to winning because 30 points with bad defense doesn't contribute as much to winning as what Mobley does. It really is quite simple, and it's quite easy to compare the two if you aren't stupid, or disingenuously trying to prove something that isn't true.
Funny a Jabari thread turns into Green vs Mobley debate. I think everybody can agree these: 1. Mobley has a higher floor and Green has a higher ceiling. 2. Mobley is in a much better situation than Green is. It is still too early to predict who will have a better NBA career. The next season will be very telling. I think we have pretty much seen what kind of play Mobley is. If he can develop an outside shot, he will be a star. The chances of that aren't high but not impossible. If not, he's going to be a good role player. If Green can develop a consistent shooting ad improve on shot selection, he will be a star even if his defense is suspect. These two guys are very different players. It's really hard to compare. The Mobley-Smith comparison is much more intriguing to me. They are both versatile defensive big. Hard to say who will be a better defensive player due to the Rockets' trash defense overall. Assuming they will turn out to be somewhat equal in their defensive values, Smith's offense has more upside. In fact, I think given Smith's recent improvement on his shots, he is already a better offensive prospect than Mobley, unless Mobley can become a good outside threat.
Mobley will be a better defender than Gobert simply by being more relevant. He doesn't have the length but is much more switchable and you don't have to worry about him getting abused in space. If he does, it'll only be by guards that probably abuse everyone. Like when people say "well he can't defend Jokic or Embiid". Yeah....no one can. Jabari will probably be an outright better player than Mobley though. Just much more useful. Tall and long enough, is better laterally. Doesn't have the same instincts around the basket as Mobley but is more switchable. Again in their primes, they can probably say they'll be the best two defenders in the league. That's how good they project to be. The Cavs have done a great job of masking his deficiencies with Allen even though they won't win titles or conference championships that way. Eventually you need to take the training wheels off and at least Jabari has been allowed to be thrown into the fire vs Mobley who is still in that "everything he does is great" part of his career. Jabari/Green is a better duo than anything else we could've had in the last two drafts. Cade/Chet might be better but both have shown to be pretty injury prone very early on in their careers. Our problems begin and end with Silas/KPj.
And nice disingenuous attempt to frame the Cavs situation. Garland was in his third season last year. That's is the big theirs year bump potential star guards have. He's going to be an elite pg. They have guys like Rubio also who are great at being quality vets who knows their role. They had Jarret Allen who was 23 who made his jump to being a all defensive level big.
I don't think people have the capacity to evolve their perspective on a player. I don't think there's anything Jalen can do to make people believe he's more than just a chucker. Just like there's no % Mobley can shoot from 3 that will get people off the "stretch 4" prototype he was supposed to be. It's just the nature of the internet, people roll with the first thought they clung onto.
It's why casual NBA fans think Paolo is going to be a superstar and Green is the next Clarkson even though Green has a more efficient rookie season than Paolo. It's because Palao started off hot and Green started off bad.
Disagree re Mobley being a better defensive prospect than Gobert but I understand your argument. A roaming elite defender can't impact the game as much as even an above average defensive anchor at C. Defensive anchors contest twice more shots (just volume) than forwards so it's near impossible for forwards and guards to have a greater impact on point differential than a net positive anchor C. A great example of this is: Brook Lopez is whooping Giannis in DPOY conversations and it's not because Lopez is a better defender, it's because he's playing C and Giannis is roaming. Defense at the C position is worth more than at any other position (more than forwards and way more than guards). The reason is because C's simply have WAY more opportunities to contest shots than anyone else on the floor. They can contest guards, forwards and C's on the regular while the other players aren't in the path of every single shot. Being switchable (e.g. Giannis) isn't enough to make up for that statistically speaking. Now, that gives Mobley (7'4 wingspan) an OPPORTUNITY over Jabari (7'1 wingspan) at C, but on offense I'll still go Jabari and on perimeter defense it's obviously Jabari too. I love Mobley as a prospect and would love to have him on the team too, but not trading any of Sengun, Jabari or Green for him. If we're going star hunting, we have better choices.
I would trade Sengun+Eason+literally anyone else not named Jalen or Jabari for Mobley today. I'd drive them all to the airport. But I would agree that I wouldn't trade Jabari or Jalen for him straight up. They're just more valuable commodities than Evan. If Chet pans out he will probably be the most impactful player of the last 2 drafts. I'd but Jabari at second with Jalen at third and Mobley at 4th. I'm extremely down on the heliocentric oversized bad defender guard type like Harden/Luka or Banchero. There's a reason GSW was so dominant. They had players like Jalen and Jabari that caused absolute chaos for defenses and tired them out. No one ever mentions this. Harden's top of the key dribble ball basically allowed defenses to rest for 15 seconds vs Curry running around like a maniac tiring people out all the time.
