There were high expectations of Donovan Mitchell when the Cleveland Cavaliers traded for him last offseason. While the 2022-23 campaign ended in disappointment with a first-round exit from the playoffs, there was no denying that Mitchell still had a very good debut season for the franchise.
He averaged a career-high 28.3 PPG to go with 4.3 RPG, 4.4 APG, 1.5 SPG, and 0.4 BPG to earn a spot on the All-NBA Second Team. Mitchell felt he deserved to be on the First Team and his head coach J.B. Bickerstaff agreed.
“I definitely agree with Don,” Bickerstaff said on Run It Back. “I feel like he should’ve been First Team… He definitely earned it through the regular season and proved that he was one of the top 5 players this year.”
(starts at 17:54 mark):
You’d really struggle to make a case for Mitchell as a top-five player this season, but there certainly is one for him being on the First Team. The two guard spots were occupied by Luka Doncic and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, both of whom didn’t make the playoffs.
Mitchell, meanwhile, led the Cavs to the fourth seed in the Eastern Conference as they won 51 games. So, you can make the argument that he should have perhaps made it over one of them because of the team record.
Donovan Mitchell’s Surprising Postseason Struggles
For all the regular season success, however, Mitchell was a disappointment in the playoffs. His scoring dipped to 23.2 PPG against the New York Knicks and he also shot just 43.4% from the field as the Cavs lost in five games. Mitchell admitted after the series that they just got outplayed and he needs to perform a lot better if they are to have success moving forward.
Considering this was the first season together for this group, you can’t be too critical of them. It takes time for a team to properly gel when they bring in a star like Mitchell, but the pressure on them is going to rise if they can’t have success in the playoffs in the coming years.
We sincerely appreciate and respect you as a reader of our site. It would help us a lot if you follow us on Google News because of the latest update.
Thanks for following us. We really appreciate your support.
