Evan Mobley Rumors

"[Donovan] Mitchell, [James] Harden, [Evan] Mobley, [Jarrett] Allen. Dan and Grant -- which is the Gilberts. Plus Koby [Altman], he was there when LeBron won there," Paul said. "Big, big, big X factor, let me talk to you about Brandon Weems," who is the Cavs' assistant GM under the president of basketball operations, Altman, and was a childhood friend and James' high school teammate. "Brandon Weems is basically LeBron's brother," Paul said. "Now, he worked his own way [up], nobody gave him anything. He's earned to be in the front office of the Cavs. "But that is a big feather in the cap [for Cleveland], because of Brandon Weems." Paul added that the Cavs would have been even more appealing had the roster still featured fellow Klutch client Darius Garland, who was traded to the LA Clippers for Harden last season. "This is no offense to Harden," Paul said. "Because he loves Garland like he loves Maxey."

ESPN

What are you most proud of this season? Kenny Atkinson: I think we were 17-16 at one point. It looked like the wheels were falling off. Just how we kept it together, with expectations being so high, and we started playing a lot of young guys. We got through that with great leadership, starting with Donovan Mitchell, then Evan Mobley, even before De'Andre Hunter came. Those guys kind of kept the ship afloat. As we got healthier, we really went on some good runs. Listen, success is relative, right? It's all about perspective. We did take a jump. We'd gone to the conference semifinals three years in a row, and this year we made it to the conference finals. I know it wasn't the greatest result, but we kind of ran into a buzzsaw. We could have played better, but we did make a jump. We did improve. There are steps to this thing. It just doesn't happen overnight. When you're one of the final four teams in the NBA, I think you're doing something right. We obviously have the hunger and ambition to do more, so I think it was a successful season on many fronts.

HoopsHype

Chris Mannix: Teams are looking to see if Jaylen Brown is truly available and what the asking price for him is going to be. But the Celtics, I believe, are listening to those calls and are thinking up their own trade matches of their own. I spent some time this afternoon talking to different teams about what might the Celtics be interested in. And the name in the team that came back to me a lot was Evan Mobley in the Cleveland Cavaliers. Evan Mobley, young, big, just entering the prime of his career, former defensive player of the year, just starting a new max contract of his own. Mobley is one of those guys that could fit the archetype of the type of player that the Celtics are looking for.

YouTube

Brian Windhorst on Evan Mobley: "He is highly valued in the league. Obviously, he is a bit of a complex player making the supermax. If you look at him without his salary, you see a tremendous versatile defensive player who is super talented on offense but inconsistent. When you see these got the supermax attached, it makes you feel a certain way about him and gives him less grace when he doesn't have aggressive moments. But no, he is very highly valued in the NBA and he is very highly valued in Cleveland, quite obviously."

YouTube

Chris Fedor: There are questions about can Evan Mobley make that transition from power forward full-time to full-time center, handle the physicality, handle the intensity, handle the rigors that come with that? I don't know. It's just a harder question, I think, than people try to make it seem like because of the impact of Jarrett Allen, because of his effectiveness compared to Evan. And it's like, if you're talking about just this upcoming season as opposed to the next three to five years, me personally, probably pick Jarrett. I think there are people inside this organization that probably would pick Jarrett. But you, unfortunately, you can't only look at that. You have to balance like all these different things that we brought up.  I don't think it's snap your fingers and say that if you break up Jarrett and Evan, you definitely become a better basketball team.

YouTube

The problem: The Cavs love Mobley, they believe in him and there are multiple members of the Cleveland brain trust that would be vehemently against a Giannis-Mobley swap, as the 2025 Defensive Player of the Year and Second-Team All-NBA selection is viewed as not only a future star but also a proverbial safety net when it comes to another rebuild. There’s also the matter of Antetokounmpo’s contract. Would he be willing to extend in Cleveland beyond the one guaranteed season left on his current deal? Would the Cavs surrender one of their best players — and most attractive trade asset — with so much uncertainty surrounding Antetokounmpo’s future? At 31 years old, with a few leg-related injuries, it’s far from a no-brainer.

Cleveland Plain Dealer

There has long been chatter about the Thunder having interest in Cleveland big man Evan Mobley as well, but Cavaliers general manager Koby Altman insisted in an end-of-season news conference that Mobley wasn’t going anywhere.

New York Times

Donovan Mitchell: We don’t get to the conference finals without James Harden. We tried. I don’t know how else to put it, but we live in a world where it’s just so much easier to knock and hate. And pretty sure they’re going to hate me. They’re going to hate [Evan Mobley], they hate [head coach] Kenny [Atkinson]. They’re going to hate everybody, right? So, this right here isn’t me saying, “Don’t hate us.”

Andscape

Point-blank, Cleveland Cavaliers president of basketball operations Koby Altman was prompted to answer whether or not Evan Mobley will be on the roster before next season begins. He hesitated, taken aback by the question, then pressed by a reporter on the rumors surrounding the Cavs and Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo. “I mean, he's part of our future,” Altman said on Friday in his end-of-season press conference. “We're not going to speculate on any players outside these walls. All I can tell you is, since Evan's been here, we've had the third-best record in the league. Now, we don't have a championship to show for that yet, right? “Boston and Denver, the other two ahead of us, they have a championship to show for that. But all Evan has done is impacted winning. He's been remarkable for us in terms of our ascent the last five years. He's a huge part of what we do. He knows he needs to get better.”

Clutch Points

Speaking on whether Evan Mobley will be with the Cavs next season, Altman said, "Yeah, he's part of our future." With regard to speculation that the Cavs could package Mobley in a trade for Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo, Altman said he's "not going to speculate on any players outside of these walls. Since Evan's been here, we have the third-best record in the league."

Akron Beacon Journal

Windhorst added in a follow-up that Cleveland may explore acquiring Milwaukee Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo. The insider said, “I don’t think it’ll be long before you start to hear the Cavs attached to Giannis Antetokounmpo. If they put Evan Mobley on the table, what if they can turn him into Giannis?”

profootballnetwork.com

Oh No He Didn't: Windy on the Cavs roster: "I expect them to make some significant changes to it. I expect the Cavs to be mulling over...like I don't think it will be long before you start to hear Cavs attached to Giannis...would they consider entering that market? If they put Evan Mobley on the table...they drafted him to be another Giannis. What if they could turn him into Giannis with Harden and Donovan Mitchell on the roster"

x.com

Atkinson took the 2025 playoff failure hard and rewatched every possession from the series against Indiana, looking for what went wrong. He was hard on his staff, numerous league sources said, in part because he felt he couldn’t be overly hard on the players. But at the same time, with Darius Garland and Max Strus out to start the regular season, Atkinson tried to lean on Evan Mobley to be more of an offensive threat. Both he and the team struggled with that priority.

New York Times

The Cavs, probably soon, are going home for the summer with the most expensive roster in NBA history and no finals berth to show for it. The rules are written such that it is unlikely some key role players will be back, and it is nearly impossible to bring in better replacements without first making significant moves to shed salary. Otherwise, you’re looking at something drastic like trading Evan Mobley for Giannis Antetokounmpo — though two league sources say Cleveland has shown no interest in that move as of now.

New York Times