The Cleveland Cavaliers, on their road back to the top of the NBA, have relied heavily on Donovan Mitchell. He’s always been an All-Star level player but in 2025, he made All-NBA first team, which shows how far he’s come. Head coach Kenny Atkinson has all the praise in the world to shower him with.
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Mitchell was already a superstar in Utah, before joining Cleveland in 2022. But he was mainly a scorer, something Sam Mitchell, analyst on SiriusXM NBA Radio, brought up in a conversation with Atkinson. Now, he takes more responsibility with the ball in his hand.
Atkinson, who led the Cavs to a 64-18 finish last season, feels that a balance is important with Mitchell now also being a facilitator. Sometimes, that may also mean unleashing his inner ‘Michael Jordan’.
“It’s a fine balance as you know better than anybody,” Atkinson said to Mitchell. “You want him to be aggressive, like sometimes he’s gotta go into a Michael Jordan mode. I feel like, you gotta go there. There are moments in the game when he knows he has to do that.”
Jordan was not a predictable player. He adapted to the team’s needs, and could single handedly take up the main-scoring role whenever he wanted. But he also made those around him better. Without that, the Chicago Bulls would not have won six NBA championships.
Alongside players like Darius Garland, Mitchell was freer in the 2024/25 season, unlike on the Jazz, where the burden of scoring almost fell single-handedly on him. His numbers in Cleveland don’t paint him as an ‘assist-god’ (5.1 assists per game in three Cavs years), but he’s more than just solid at playmaking, and it’s evident with how brilliant the team’s offense looked last season.
Mitchell averaged 24 points and dished out about five assists per game. “What he did last season was empower the group,” Atkinson continued, and it’s hard to disagree with the former Warriors assistant coach. After all, the Cavaliers ranked #1 in offensive rating in the NBA last season.
Sadly, Mitchell and the Cavaliers didn’t have enough left in the tank once they made it to the playoffs. They gentleman swept Miami aside in the first round, but got shafted by the Indiana Pacers thereafter, showcasing that there’s room for improvement.
2025/26 has not gone off to a brilliant start either for the Cavs, who lost 119-111 to the New York Knicks on Wednesday’s season opener.
