Who are the Cavs’ 3 best passers entering the 2022-23 season?

The 3 best Cavs’ passers entering 2022-23 – No. 3: Donovan Mitchell

For the third-best passer heading into this season, I’m going with Donovan Mitchell.

Over the course of his five years with the Utah Jazz, Mitchell got progressively better as a playmaker for others, particularly when it came to perimeter shooters.

Mitchell is going to be a score-first guy, and he projects as the primary bucket-getter for the Cavaliers now, but Mitchell will reportedly be getting functioning as a lead guard for some stretches in non-Garland lineups, and he’s capable there.

Over the years, Mitchell has become especially adept at a variety of deliveries with his drive-and-kick game to counter his scoring, and that should hold true in coming years with Cleveland. Mitchell in a combo guard role has had 4.3, and then 5.2 and 5.3 assists per game the last three seasons, and with help from Garland, his turnover splits should go down, in my opinion.

Mitchell can make feeds with both hands in those situations, hit spray-outs over-the-top in pick-and-roll to the weak side corner on a line if double teams come, and on baseline drives, he can contort his body in mid-air to hit shooters from a variety of angles. That can negate rotations, en route to more open looks for others.

Objectively, I didn’t read a ton into the Mitchell not dishing to Rudy Gobert often stuff, and I personally do think Mitchell will be just fine in helping generate quality looks for Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen. And for what it’s worth, Allen is a far more polished offensive player than Gobert, and just has far better touch, so I’d think we should see Mitchell-Allen pick-and-roll sequences lead to quality offense for both.

Mitchell can have blinders on at times, and for score-first guards, that can happen occasionally, so somewhat along the lines of Collin Sexton, I’m going to give Mitchell a pass. I do with Sexton before, too, and his passing improved over his time with the Cavs.

But in the case with Mitchell here, his vision and creativity is far more advanced with how that was developed with Utah. And with Mitchell’s terrific ball-handling factored in as well, he should make a big impact as a passer for the Cavaliers, too, coupled with his scoring.