Jarrett Allen says Evan Mobley is still adding to his game, and the Cleveland Cavaliers center believes the next step is for those new skills to show up when the games count.
Allen spoke Monday about Mobley's continued growth after the two teammates spent part of the preseason working in different combinations. Donovan Mitchell went back to working with Allen, while Mobley was paired with James Harden in Cleveland's preseason setup. Allen said the constant improvement has been obvious inside the building, where Mobley has reportedly shown things in practice that the team had not seen from him before.
Mobley's rise has already been established
The comments carry extra weight because Mobley is coming off the best season of his career. In 2024-25, he made his first All-Star team and was named Defensive Player of the Year, adding another major achievement to the resume of the No. 3 overall pick the Cavaliers selected out of USC in 2021.
Mobley is also in the second season of a five-year extension that runs through 2030, so Cleveland has made clear that he remains a central part of its future. That makes his development more than a nice side note. If Mobley can keep expanding his skill set, the Cavaliers could have even more ways to use him on both ends of the floor.
Allen pointed to that kind of growth directly, saying that when a player keeps doing new things in practice every year, it becomes easier to trust that the progress will carry over. He added that Mobley is now at the point where applying those skills in games is the next step. The message was simple: the improvement is real, but Cleveland wants to see it translate into live action.
What the preseason usage showed
The Cavaliers have also given a small preview of how they might explore that growth. In the preseason, Harden and Mobley were used together, and Allen described the pairing as a strong fit. He said Harden is capable of getting to the basket and finding Mobley, while Mobley can also handle the ball himself. That kind of combination could matter if Cleveland wants to make Mobley more versatile offensively.
There was already one encouraging moment in the preseason finale, when Orlando beat Cleveland 132-116 on Oct. 13 and Mobley scored 14 points on 6-of-14 shooting. A few days earlier, Harden scored 24 points in his preseason debut against Orlando on Oct. 11. Those games do not tell the full story, but they do show the Cavaliers experimenting with different looks before the regular season begins.
Allen's belief in Mobley fits the broader tone around Cleveland, where Donovan Mitchell and Kenny Atkinson have also publicly defended Mobley's standing. The Cavaliers clearly view him as more than a defensive anchor now. The question is how much more he can add to an already elite profile, and whether the new work in practice becomes a visible part of his game once the season starts.
For Mobley, that is the next challenge. He has already become an All-Star and one of the league's top defenders. Now the Cavaliers want the rest of the league to see the new layers Allen says are showing up behind the scenes.
