I don't see freakish athleticism from either Green or Mobley. The word freak athlete gets thrown around way too loosely. I can think of a small handful of players that can fit that category.
Weird for Green. Green most commonly gets compared to Lavine, Morant and De'Aaron Fox athletically and I'd consider all of those guys freak athletes.
the way people talk about Mobley, it’s like he won’t take 4-5 years to become really good, that’s the amount of time it will take for him not to be a complete scrub
Jalen reminds me more of Kobe than of MJ, in that he is less of a physical freak, but perhaps more of a skill freak than people give him credit for. He actually reminds me a lot of a young Ray Allen.
Here is the thing about Mobley's strength: people point to Jokic and Embiid (the MVP and the runner up MVP) as examples of guys he will have trouble with. Everybody has problems with those guys. In fact, the center for a Jalen Green led Houston Rockets team (Wood) is going to have similar problems that nobody seems even slightly concerned about. Mobley will have issues next season with bully ball bigs and with super quick guards just like every other big man in the NBA does. But he will be just about as good as anybody defensively as a rookie. Given a year of maturing and in an NBA strength and conditioning program and he becomes a legitimate pest defensively, By year 3 he is a problem for the league. That happens to be the season the Rockets need to actually be competitive to screw the OKC pick in the 2024 draft.
Maybe my definition is a bit more strict or even weird. I think Green is a small tier under Lavine and Morant in terms of athleticism. When I think of freak athletes, I think a combination of speed, quickness, strength, agility, body control that makes them do moves no other people can do on the basketball court. I think players like MJ, Zion, young Blake, Dwight Howard, Lebron, Westbrook, DRose Lavine for example might be one of the best jumpers in the league, but his other athletic aspects don't stand out as much, which puts him a category slightly below above players. His playing style is also not that reliant on his jumping abilities, he's a 40% 3 point shooter on 8 attempts.
Neither Shawn Kemp or Amare had Mobley's length or lateral agility, never mind his guard skills. Mobley's vertical pop is impressive enough especially for a 7 footer that can get his arm in the net, Mobley doesnt even need to load up for 2nd and 3rd jumps. The parsing is absolutely mind boggling, CF is not usually this biased. Mobley has to be Kemp-esque to deserve label of athletic? Now he has to be "most athletic"?
To me freak athlete is different from freakishly athletic. Like VC and Jordan are freakishly athletic. They jump sky high and are extremely quick etc. But they have normal build for their size. Lebron oth is a freak athlete cuz he has the size of Karl Malone, the speed and athleticism of Kobe and the longetivity of Kareem. Like put Lebron vs Vince Carter I'm sure VC can jump higher than him and prob even run faster than him. But Lebron is carrying the mass of Karl Malone so he is a freak athlete cuz a dude that big shouldnt be that fast. Same thing with AD and KD, they have guard skills but they are 6'10, other 6'10 dudes are lumbering and slow guys they are like sports cars on the court. Same thing with Giannis Keon Johnson has higher max vert than him but Giannis is the freak athlete between him and KJ.
I am actually very concerned about Wood's ability to get abused by physical bigs, we saw this problem all season which is why we put Olynik on bigs towards the end of the season. Right now Mobley can guard 1-4 in the NBA imo not 1-5.
Did you believe 6'10 196 lbs 7'3 wingspan rookie Giannis was going to be future MVP and DPOY? If you did would you have drafted him 1st instead of 14th?
And Giannis was not even considered that explosive when he was drafted. That was one of knocks against him, long but not particularly bouncy. Now Giannis is a freak athlete, strength training turned him into a completely different player. He is also not starving anymore, so there is that.
Can someone who has done more research on Mobley comment on his handling, passing, and jump shooting ability? Can he have the ball and isolate on guys, and take them off the dribble? Can he run a PnR as the ball handler? Can he hit jumpers - can he hit them off the dribble? (I'd prefer it if the people answering these questions have watched FULL GAMES of Mobley and not just YouTube clips and highlights.) I'm asking because I think success for Mobley on offense in the NBA comes more as a guy who creates from the perimeter than a as a guy who scores down low; I personally don't ever see at-the-rim scoring being a go-to for him at the NBA level because of his high center of gravity and thin frame.
The only 5's that Mobley MIGHT have trouble with are Embiid and Jokic. He will be fine against everyone else. This is not the NBA pre 90's.
I'm comparing Mobley to 196 lbs Giannis, in terms of length, skill and weight. This is actually an insult to Mobley, Giannis was not ready day 1. FYI - Green Gang not comparing Green to teenage rook Kobe. They compare him to Black Mamba, as in Mamba Mentality and being an alpha. That was not Kobe when he was drafted.
Do you trust analysis of The Athletic's Alykhan Bijani? He addresses ALL your questions. Or you can listen to Chad Ford podcast. “I would say keep Cunningham's flaws start with inefficiency and Evan Mobley’s strengths start with just incredible efficiency because for a seven footer, he moves so well," Demakis said. "He is so smooth and so fluid and so coordinated. I would say he's in the conversation for best passing big prospects in the past 20 years.”
Call me crazy I think the more research I do on Mobley the more I see Jaren Jackson Jr. There is a size difference (30 lbs) coming out of college but there's a lot of overlap in their games. I'd take a JJJ with the 2nd without hesitation.
