Cavs’ Donovan Mitchell voted best SG in NBA media midseason survey

The Cleveland Cavaliers made a great trade this offseason when they acquired Donovan Mitchell from the Utah Jazz. The two teams actually played last night out in Salt Lake City as it was a homecoming of sorts for the superstar. Mitchell welcomed the video tribute given to him from his former team and then he went out and had a great first half as he posted 25 points then. Cleveland wasn’t able to pull out a win, and lost 116-114, but Mitchell himself was spectacular, finishing with 46 points, to go with six assists, five rebounds and three steals.

Mitchell is continuing to be recognized by many in the sports world, including the NBA basketball beat reporters from the various teams across the league. Recently a group of those NBA team beat reporters voted on several things in the NBA world at the midway point of the season. That included things like who’s actually the best team in the league. The Cavs were voted as the 7th-best team by these media gurus, and there was also a question posed to the reporters about who had the best offseason and overwhelmingly Cleveland was voted as No. 1 and that vote had everything to do with the Mitchell trade.

The other honor for Mitchell in this voting included him being voted as the best shooting guard in the league. He outvoted substantially Devin Booker from the Phoenix Suns as Mitchell had the No. 1 ranking with 62% of the vote. Booker only got 17% of the votes.

Mitchell has been phenomenal for the Cavs this season, and this NBA media survey was yet another reminder of how the deal for him has paid off.

Mitchell has come to play this season and it’s been one that has been off the charts. He was the Eastern Conference Player of the Week last week when he went for 71 points in a come-from-behind win against the Chicago Bulls. He scored 55 points combined in the second half and overtime. Mitchell is now only the seventh player to go for over 70 points in the history of the NBA.

He may not score 71 points every night, but he is averaging close to 30 points a night and has been the difference-maker in this Cavaliers season that continues to get better. Mitchell has earned many honors over the years when he played for the Jazz and that will likely continue this season with this most recent voting done by media members. It should be an early indication that Mitchell will be recognized with many other forthcoming awards over the rest of the season.

Likely the biggest reward for Mitchell and his young Cavalier team this season is that they reach the NBA postseason, which is something they haven’t done in several seasons. Then maybe they eventually could compete for that next Cavalier NBA Championship. Mitchell’s experience in Utah included the fact that his teams went to the playoffs every year that he played. He has brought that type of understanding and experience to a young team now in “The Land.”

Last season the Cavs struggled down the line because they didn’t have that go to player when they were trying to sneak into the playoffs, but Mitchell could be, as I’ve mentioned in a previous article, like a former Cleveland star, LeBron James, because of his ability to put his team on his back to win games.