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Danny Cunningham covers the Cleveland Cavaliers for 850 ESPN Cleveland and thelandondemand.com. You can follow him on Twitter at @RealDCunningham.
When the Cleveland Cavaliers traded for Donovan Mitchell last September they knew they were getting someone who would help to elevate the franchise to a place it hadn’t been in a few years. They knew they were getting one of the better three-level scorers in basketball and someone with a winning track record.
They didn’t expect to receive what Mitchell has given them so far this season, which has been one of the best individual seasons in franchise history. The Cavs have reached the 50-win mark, clinched home court advantage, and are one of just one of three teams in the NBA that have a top ten offense and defense. Mitchell has been the engine behind most of that.
Mitchell hasn’t had a season as good as this one in his entire career. He’s averaging with 28.3 points per game while shooting while shooting 48.4 percent from the floor and 38.6 percent from 3-point range. All of those numbers are the best they’ve been in his entire career. Expecting him to set a new standard for his career in his first season in a new situation wasn’t a fair expectation.
For everything that Mitchell has done this season, he deserves to be named to the All-NBA first team when the NBA’s awards are announced later this spring.
Yes, guys like Luka Doncic and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander might be having better years statistically than Mitchell has had. They’re both averaging better than 30 points per game on terrific efficiency. The impact they’ve had on their respective teams is just as great, if not greater, than the one Mitchell has had on the Cavs.
What Mitchell has done in Cleveland is deserving of the honor. He’s seamlessly fit into a team that won 44 games a year ago and elevated it to a place near the league’s elite. There have been other reasons the Cavs are better this season than last, but none is bigger than the addition of Mitchell. He’s had the best season of his career on the floor and been a leader inside the locker room. When the Cavs need someone to have a big night and will them to a victory, Mitchell has been that guy, over and over again.
Mitchell set a franchise record this season with 13 40-point games in a single season, breaking the previous record of 10 set by LeBron James. In those 13 games, the Cavs are 8-5. When Mitchell reaches 30 points or more they’re 22-9. His success individually is almost always a barometer for the team’s success. There’s been a delicate balance between the Cavs needing Mitchell to be great in order to survive and Mitchell’s greatness propelling the Cavs.
The times in which Mitchell knows he needs to turn it on and will the Cavs to victories is uncanny. There are nights when the team is facing an inferior opponent, last Sunday against Indiana for example, and the team doesn’t have its best stuff. Mitchell has had the innate ability to take over those games, willing the team past whatever fatigue induced malaise it may be in to a victory. There have been other moments where the Cavs need Mitchell to be great in order to beat some of the better teams in the NBA. In two victories against the Celtics, Mitchell had 41 and 40 points respectively. Against the Bucks in December, Mitchell had 36 points on 21 shots against a team that had already beat the Cavs twice.
Mitchell has risen to the moment time and time again this season. That should be rewarded.
The difference between the cases is that Mitchell is doing this on a team that has won 50 games and locked up the fourth seed in the Eastern Conference. Gilgeous-Alexander and Doncic are playing out the string on teams that seem to be battling with each other for who wants the 10th seed in the Western Conference less.
This isn’t to minimize how good the competition has been, but at a certain point being one of the first best players in the NBA, or one of the two best guards, should mean that no matter the circumstances the team should have a winning record. Both Dallas and Oklahoma City are already at 42 losses despite how great Doncic and Gilgeous-Alexander have been. One of those two would likely make my theoretical All-NBA first team, but not both over Mitchell.
In looking at the landscape of the league, there are not two guards whose seasons the Cavs would rather have than Mitchell. This isn’t to say he’s the best guard in basketball. He’s not. But when taking the total package, which guards have carried their teams to the level of success Mitchell has with the Cavs this season? Golden State’s Stephen Curry has been great, but he’s missed a third of the season with injuries. Portland’s Damian Lillard had a career year, but it came on a team that was so bad he was shut down after playing in 58 games so the team could purposefully lose games to improve its chances of winning the NBA Draft Lottery. As previously mentioned, there’s a strong chance that neither Doncic or Gilgeous-Alexander reaches the playoffs.
This isn’t to say those guys don’t all deserve the honors and praise they will receive, they do. This season, Mitchell just deserves it more.