Cleveland Cavaliers star Donovan Mitchell recently sat down for an interview with Bleacher Report’s Taylor Rooks, where he spoke on a wide range of topics. At one point, Rooks asked Mitchell if he feels more pressure as a star on a team like the Cavaliers that has won one NBA championship.
“No, because I’m not [LeBron James],” Mitchell said. “I’m not going to do it the same way that he did it. What did he do? Six times in a row? Maybe we do that for the next six years, maybe we don’t. We are not the LeBron James-Kyrie Irving Cavaliers. We do it differently.
“We do it with Evan [Mobley],” Mitchell continued. “We do it with myself, we do it with [Darius Garland], we do it with Max [Strus], we do it with Jarrett [Allen], all the guys on the roster. It’s just different. We want to do it our own way while still having respect for what was done for the city.
“We succeed? Fantastic,” Mitchell added. “If we fail, we’re gonna keep going… We are going to try to accomplish what obviously they did and be the second team to win in franchise history, but being okay with like, ‘Hey, it’s not 2016.’ It was special, that was a special year. We’re looking to do something special ourselves for the city because they deserve it. The fans deserve it and that’s the goal.”
For quite some time, it looked like Mitchell had a good chance to lead the Cavaliers to just their second NBA championship. They finished atop the standings in the East with a 64-18 record in 2024-25 and were one of the title favorites.
The Cavaliers would dispatch the Miami Heat in record-breaking fashion in the first round of the playoffs to further cement their status as one of the big favorites. They were expected to brush aside the Indiana Pacers as well in the Conference Semifinals, but surprisingly lost in five games.
While injuries contributed to the Cavaliers’ demise, they just didn’t play up to their standards against the Pacers. It was a disappointing end to a season that had promised much, and Mitchell was stung by it.
“This loss definitely messed me up a little bit,” Mitchell stated. “More so than most years, and that’s what it’s going to take for it to not happen again… I was in Cleveland for about a week after [the exit]. Usually, after the season, I fly out to go back home. I couldn’t leave.”
Mitchell averaged 34.2 points, 5.8 rebounds, 3.8 assists, 2.2 steals, and 0.6 blocks per game against the Pacers, but it wasn’t enough. The six-time All-Star isn’t losing hope for the future, though, and the Cavaliers have to be firm favorites to win the East next season with all the injuries elsewhere.
Mitchell is backing himself to get the Cavaliers across the finish line next year, but he and they are going to do it their own way. They’re not the 2016 Cavaliers and are trying to forge their path.
That 2016 team was indeed quite special, with LeBron James and Kyrie Irving leading the way. Those Cavaliers seemed down and out when they went down 3-1 to the 73-9 Golden State Warriors, but managed to complete the greatest comeback in NBA Finals history.
