Can the Cavs avoid a Damian Lillard situation with Donovan Mitchell next summer? Jimmy Watkins
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- When Donovan Mitchell took the mic on Monday, Cavs president of basketball operations Koby Altman was watching and listening. Altman sat in the arena seats to Mitchell’s left and a few rows deep. If the Cavs’ top executive monitored any other player interviews at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse, cleveland.com didn’t notice.
Every word Mitchell utters holds extra weight in Cleveland these days. During Cavs media day, the star guard told reporters that he will not be signing a long-term extension with the Cavs before the Oct. 25 deadline. And while he reminded the press that he can sign the same deal next summer -- just like Altman reminded the media that Mitchell has two years remaining on his contract -- Mitchell understands he can’t stop reporters from asking about it.
“... I know it’s a world where there’s always talk,” he said. “This won’t be the last time I’ll probably have to answer this question. “But for me, we’ve got something really special we can do here. I think it starts with this season, and that’s the main goal.”
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That quote came at the end of a long answer about how excited Mitchell is about Cleveland’s team and new additions. He said he helped recruit former Jazz teammate Georges Niang. Then Mitchell told a gritty story about Max Strus running extra laps during the Cavs’ offseason conditioning tests.
But until the four-time All Star puts pen to paper, the Cavs must consider him a flight risk. Mitchell turned 27 last month, which means his next contract will bleed into his 30s, which means he will think carefully about where he signs it. And lest we forget: Mitchell never picked Cleveland; he merely accepted the city.
If he doesn’t sign Altman’s extension offer next summer, the Cavs must either trade him to restock their asset chest or risk losing him for no return in the summer of 2025. So, like Mitchell said, the saga begins with this season. It might end there, too.
The Cavs spent much of Monday’s media proceedings reliving last season’s ending, a five-game playoff exit against the New York Knicks. How to get over it, how to learn from it, how to define it.
To that last point, Altman and coach J.B. Bickerstaff still consider last season a success. In fact, Bickerstaff can’t see it another way.
“From our position, it’s difficult to grasp how it was not a success,” Bickerstaff said. “We play seasons for a reason, right? Guys get awards for a reason. I feel like not just in your question, but as a whole, we’re starting to discount what NBA seasons mean and how difficult NBA seasons are.”
Altman agreed, especially after hiring Bickerstaff to coach a team that won 22 games in 2020-21. Two years later, Altman believes calling a 50-win season anything but successful feels like a disservice to the people who accomplished it. And he and Bickerstaff both believe last season’s playoff exit is a necessary growing pain in the development process.
Bickerstaff pointed to last season’s NBA Finals, which featured the Denver Nuggets and Miami Heat, as proof. Those teams, like last season’s Cavs, had suffered disappointing playoff exits within the previous two seasons. But neither team reacted by firing staffers or overhauling personnel. Instead, they kept adding complimentary pieces and betting on continuity.
“... That’s the NBA reality,” Bickerstaff said. “Nobody skipped steps. It doesn’t matter how good you are, what trades you make. You don’t skip steps in the NBA. You have to go through it.”
Fair enough, but the Cavs changed their reality (and expectations) by trading for Mitchell last season. You could even argue they tried to skip a step but tripped up the staircase. And as a result, Cleveland needs to aim higher if it wants to keep Mitchell around for bigger climbs.
Bickerstaff said he anticipates “a leap” from his team this year but didn’t specify what he meant by that. Altman said he’d prepared to answer a question about what constitutes success this season before dancing around it.
“... We want to have success in the playoffs,” Altman said. “Having gone through what we went through last year, I’m not going to label it or pigeon (hole) ourselves into that. But I do want that to come from the players as well.”
Don’t worry, it will. Not from Darius Garland (23) and Evan Mobley (22), Cleveland’s young stars who, as Altman reminded reporters Monday, still require patience to reach their peak. But from Mitchell, the 27-year-old who is peaking now and wants his team to do the same.
Talk about tight needles: The Cavs want to keep Mitchell’s win-now potential while maintaining their slow-burn rebuild around Mobley and Garland. Their best sell might be a belief in the future, which is tough to peddle if Mitchell can’t envision a parade in the present (or at least the near future).
On Monday, such conversations sounded premature. Mitchell can sign his extension next summer, and he’s under contract for two more seasons. When Altman traded for the star guard last summer, he felt confident doing so because Mitchell’s three-year contract felt like “an eternity” in NBA time.
Now Cleveland has two years -- one if they want to recover any value -- to sell Mitchell on a city he never chose. The Cavs can pitch the prime versions of Mobley and Garland, but they can’t know can if Mitchell wants to wait for them.
So don’t make him. For all the talk about last season’s sort-of success, the Cavs’ benchmark this season is clear. Their season is a good one if Mitchell says it is, whether that means winning one, two or three playoff rounds. He won’t tell them by recruiting another role player or voicing his excitement about next season. He’ll tell them by signing another contract.
Altman will be listening the whole time, just like he was Monday afternoon.
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