Donovan Mitchell has enjoyed a spectacular individual season in 2025-26 thus far. That elevated level of greatness is being born out of necessity. That should be cause for concern if you're the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Mitchell is averaging a career-high 29.9 points per game this season. That is being delivered with the best field goal percentage (50.3), and true shooting percentage (64.3) of his playing days in the NBA. The efficiency is through the roof for the Cavaliers star.
There is no doubt that Mitchell has been, by far and away, the best offensive player for Cleveland this season. They have soaked up every bit of that production. Therein lies the problem.
This campaign was supposed to be all about the postseason. The commentary around it was about how the regular season did not matter. If that is still the prevailing thought, having Mitchell expend this much energy to keep the Cavaliers afloat is a major concern.
Cavaliers need to reembrace key Donovan Mitchell shift that helped last season
In 2024-25, Mitchell posted his lowest usage percentage during his time in Cleveland. In 2025-26, the number in that category is the highest of his four seasons with the Cavaliers.
Granted, these are fairly slim margins that are being discussed. It would be a little disingenuous to not be clear about that.
Even so, Mitchell's minutes are also way up from last season. The Cavaliers guard is averaging 34.0 a night after enjoying his lowest minutes per game (31.4) of his Cleveland tenure in 2024-25.
Similarly, the star guard is also averaging the second most field goal attempts per game of his four seasons with the Cavs. 20.4 per game only marginally trails his first campaign with his current team. Mitchell shot 20.6 attempts from the field in 2022-23.
Once more, the number for this season is up a fair bit from last. Mitchell shot the lowest field goal attempts per game of his Cavaliers days in 2024-25. Only his rookie season had him taking less shots than that.
The concern here is overworking Mitchell before the 2026 NBA Playoffs. If the postseason is what matters, why are the Cavs risking their star being burnt out now?
Unfortunately that is an easy question to answer. With all the injuries and other considerable factors, the Cavaliers have been a disappointing offense in 2025-26. Their offensive rating of 115.6 would only be worse if Mitchell was not taking the burden he is now.
With Darius Garland back in the lineup and a regular participant once more, the Cavaliers will need to alleviate Mitchell of the pressure that has been on his back to this point. The current trajectory will only force a repeat of the postseason shortcomings that Cleveland is getting all too familiar with.