Lloyd: Let’s have the uncomfortable Donovan Mitchell conversation
CLEVELAND, OH - APRIL 26: Donovan Mitchell #45 and Caris LeVert #3 of the Cleveland Cavaliers high fives during the game against the New York Knicks during round 1 Game 5 of the 2023 NBA Playoffs on April 26, 2023 at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland, Ohio. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2023 NBAE (Photo by David Liam Kyle/NBAE via Getty Images)
By Jason Lloyd
Apr 26, 2023
CLEVELAND — Spare me the Junkyard Dog chain. Sell it. Take the money and buy some shooters. Or a big who can come off the bench. Or someone, anyone, with heart and toughness. There are no junkyard dogs to see here.
The Cavs’ playoff life aged faster than dog years and now it’s already over, blown out of the postseason by a good-not-great Knicks team that pushed them around and imposed their will on a young team making its first trip to the postseason that had every weakness exposed in the span of 11 days.
This is an incredibly flawed roster. The Cavs have no bigs who can help off the bench, very little shooting and a style of play that isn’t conducive to today’s game. It’s fine for the regular season, when the schedule turns quickly, the scouting reports consist of a few basic talking points and players don’t try very hard in the 60-65 games they actually show up to play. But all of that changes in the postseason when scouting reports thicken, tendencies are studied and small cracks are blown into gaping deficiencies.
The honeymoon phase is over. I hope you enjoyed the cake. That was last season when the Cavs were given a pass for their second-half collapse that resulted in missing the playoffs. There were injuries and they were young and it all sounded like plausible excuses to make at the time, but those vanished the moment the Cavs shipped all of their tradeable assets to Utah in exchange for Donovan Mitchell.
The clock is ticking now and time is speeding up. The roster needs to be repaired from 5-15 and they have few resources to do it. They’re all in Utah now.
I’m not going to criticize the Mitchell trade. The Cavs felt their contention window was opening and a superstar became available so they pushed all in to get him. But it’s fair to mention they could’ve made the playoffs this year and lost in the first round with Lauri Markkanen while keeping all those draft picks, so what really have they gained to this point?
Mitchell was a massive disappointment in this series, something he owned after Games 4 and 5. He had the quietest 28 points in a closeout game Wednesday partly because he shot 3-for-12 from 3.
“I didn’t do my job,” Mitchell said. “That’s where I’m hurt. You know what I mean? And I deserve the criticism that comes with that.”
go-deeper
GO DEEPER
Knicks finish off Cavs, advance to East semifinals
So here it is.
Mitchell was bounced from the playoffs in the first round for the second time in as many seasons, and worse, he was outplayed by Jalen Brunson both years. While he’s made the playoffs every season he’s been in the league, he’s only won two series in six years and has never reached a conference final.
Mitchell thought he was getting traded to New York last summer, which made this first-round matchup a little juicier. To his credit, he has never run from the fact he thought he was going home — he said it at his introductory news conference and he reiterated it again Wednesday after the Cavs were eliminated.
“I feel like everybody else has made it this whole storyline,” Mitchell said. “I knew it was going to be a thing. I’m on Instagram. I see it, it’s everywhere. You guys talk about it. We all talk about it. But honestly, it happened. I didn’t go there. I’m here. They beat us. It’s over with. You know what I mean? And I’m happy with what we have and I didn’t do my job.”
Donovan Mitchell (45) defends Knicks guard Jalen Brunson in the third quarter of the Cavs’ 106-95 loss in Game 5. (David Richard / USA Today)
Mitchell didn’t choose Cleveland. He was sent here when he thought he was going to New York. Mitchell has been a model teammate during his time here. Nevertheless, talk has persisted in league circles throughout this season that he will indeed go to New York at his first opportunity. The Cavs knew the score when they made the deal and now they’re in a difficult spot. Mitchell has two years of team control remaining before a player option year.
Given all the assets the Cavs surrendered to acquire him, do you really believe they can let him walk away during the summer of 2025 and get nothing in return? Dan Gilbert told people close to him for years he should’ve traded LeBron James in the summer of 2009 when James had a year left on his contract the first time he was in Cleveland. Gilbert’s explanation was simply that James wouldn’t commit long term and they couldn’t risk losing the asset for nothing. At the time, trading the best player in the game would’ve been a public relations disaster, particularly when he grew up down the street. But Gilbert vowed after James left in 2010 he’d never again let a player hold his organization hostage.
If Gilbert felt that way about James in 2009, how do you think he’ll react when facing a similar situation with Mitchell? If the Cavs can’t get a commitment from him, they could easily be forced into trading him next summer when he has a year of team control remaining.
All of which puts an incredible amount of pressure on next season to win. Big.
How they get there is more complicated. Their situation hasn’t really changed since the trade deadline. They still have no first-round picks to trade and no great resources on the roster that would return much in value. They have a gaping hole at small forward, something they neglected to address after trading away Markkanen to get Mitchell. That haunted them in this series when the Knicks refused to guard Isaac Okoro and forced him out of the starting lineup because of his inability to consistently make shots.
Caris LeVert is a free agent that must be re-signed since he’s one of the few shooters on the roster. Maybe Dean Wade flushes whatever has haunted him since the Cavs moved on from Kevin Love and plays worthy of the $18 million contract the Cavs gave him in September to be a dependable stretch 4. (Love, incidentally, is a rotational piece in Miami and moving on to the second round while the Cavs’ season is over. Talk about terrible optics.)
Maybe Ricky Rubio, a year removed from major knee surgery, returns to the player who propelled the Cavs into the feel-good story of the league last season. But that’s a lot of wishing and hoping on one unproven big and one veteran nearing the end of his career. Even if both come true, it still isn’t enough.
Regardless of what happens with Mitchell, the Cavs have two dynamic pieces in Darius Garland and Evan Mobley under their control for a long time. Jarrett Allen was also in that discussion two weeks ago before the Knicks yet again demonstrated how easy it is to guard a team with two lane-clogging bigs. Unless Mobley’s 3-point shot develops before next season, it’s fair to wonder how successful this team will ever be in the postseason playing Mobley and Allen together, particularly when they’re matched with a non-shooting wing. That’s a big reason why Mitchell and Garland struggled so badly offensively in this series — there weren’t enough shooters to spread the floor and create driving lanes.
The Cavs tried insisting after the Mitchell trade the organization had a long runway ahead of them and there wasn’t an immediate pressure to win right away. That has quickly changed. The plane is speeding up now. Buckle up.
"I've suffered a great many tragedies in my life....most of them never happened". Mark Twain