Cleveland Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell is a tremendous talent. He's a seven-time All-Star, three-time All-NBA selection, and he's finished in the top-seven in NBA MVP voting in three out of the last four seasons. I'm not here to argue that Mitchell is overrated or doesn't deserve to be called a superstar. I'm here to remind readers what thousands of Cavaliers fans are well aware of -- that Mitchell is not good enough to be the best player on an NBA championship team.
Mitchell's struggles throughout his career to advance deep into the playoffs are a clear indication that he's not in the highest tier of NBA superstars, the tier comprised of guys who can almost singlehandedly carry a team to the NBA Finals. The city of Cleveland is well aware of what that type of player looks like. LeBron James carried the Cavaliers on his shoulders for years. He brought a medicore Cavs roster to the NBA Finals in 2007, and, aided by some star talent around him in 2016, James pulled off one of the most improbable championships in league history.
Donovan Mitchell isn't a championship alpha, and the Cavaliers don't want to admit it
Mitchell doesn't have to be LeBron James to be successful in Cleveland. That would be an impossible and unfair assignment. But what the Cavaliers' front office has asked and expected of Mitchell -- to lead this Cavs roster to the franchise's second championship -- is also an unfair ask. Mitchell isn't that guy. Similar to Kyrie Irving, Mitchell is a fringe-Batman type player with a world of ridiculous talent whose ceiling ultimately lands in the realm of being an overqualified Robin to a slightly more talented superstar, at least in the context of winning it all.
If the Cavs were serious about keeping Mitchell (they sound like they are), and also serious about contending in 2026-27, the move would be to trade Evan Mobley in a package for Giannis Antetokounmpo, thereby creating the situation described above, wherein Mitchell isn't the best player on the Cavs. That and only that is the way that you can win a title with Donovan Mitchell.
But Cavaliers president of basketball operations Koby Altman strongly disagrees. "Do we think we can win with him as the best player on our team? Yes," Altman asserted on Friday about Mitchell during an exit interview.
Cavaliers will continue to disappoint fans if they keep leaning on Donovan Mitchell to be a savior
It's delusion like this from Altman that is not only holding the Cavaliers back, but preventing Mitchell from winning a ring. As Mitchell's athleticism wanes into his thirties, all of the truths I am writing here about him not being a championship alpha are going to become more and more obvious.
Is Altman doubling down on the Mitchell propaganda because he knows that Giannis is unattainable? That could be the case, but no one's buying it. Not anyone who's watched the Cavs consistently and seen Mitchell consistently come up short as the leading man.
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