Cleveland Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell has quieted the rumors about him heading to the New York Knicks.
Frankly, Jalen Brunson’s success in the boroughs of New York City has as much to do with that as Mitchell’s belief in his Cavs team. Yet, playing in a less glamorous market may have an effect on his star power. Opportunities that may have been present had he played for glamour franchises like Knicks, Boston Celtics, or Los Angeles Lakers don’t seem to be there.
One of his most glaring omissions may have come this summer, as he was left off of Team USA’s Olympic roster. In fact, he may not have even been under consideration, at least not heavily. For a player who just averaged 29.6 points per game on a playoff-bound team, it seems strange though.
Perhaps USA Basketball director Grant Hill didn’t think he’d mesh well with the others. At least that figured into why 2024 NBA Finals MVP, Jaylen Brown, was snubbed. If so, Hill may have turned a blind eye to Mitchell’s playmaking and humility.
First-Rate Scorer Donovan Mitchell Far From Cavalier About LA Olympics
“First of all, I think Book’s approach I think should be every hooper’s approach,” Mitchell tells 7PM in Brooklyn. “His ‘I’ll do it.’ I respect the h*** out of that because that’s the same type of time I’m on.”
“I feel like I deserve to be in that spot.”
Spida reacts to being left off 2028 Olympic Team roster projections and says he’s a top 10-15 player in the league right now.
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— 7PM in Brooklyn (@7PMinBrooklyn) September 24, 2024
Phoenix Suns guard Devin Booker, highly respected among his peers, didn’t just offer lip service when he said “I’ll do it” either.
I’ll do it https://t.co/77PBGNEQ0W
— Book (@DevinBook) September 12, 2023
Throughout the 2024 Olympics, he proved that he was willing to do whatever was asked of him. A player who is the face of his franchise happily went into the shadows, just to secure his team a win.
Mitchell alluding to this tweet from last year offers an interesting perspective. Hill may have been too quick to dismiss more talented, and probably more deserving, players out of fear they wouldn’t be able to accept a role. Nonetheless, what’s over and done with can’t be changed, and he’s still hoping to make the cut for the LA Olympics.
What’s bothering him is that of the many 2028 roster predictions, he wasn’t on the list.
“I’m not going to lie. I saw myself not in a lot of roster predictions,” Mitchell admits. “It’s b*******. But it is what it is. At the end of the day. If that’s, that’s what people feel like I just got to do more. That’s kind of been my whole mindset, but I feel like I deserve to be right in that [conversation]…”
Olympic Motivation
Mitchell, a five-time All-Star after seven NBA seasons, definitely belongs in the Olympic conversation. However, there’s a difference between being worthy of consideration and being too good to pass up. That’s the next step that the Louisville product is looking to take.
To him, the solution is about adding to his accolades. Yet, the successes he needs to have are in the playoffs, not just the regular season. To that point, Mitchell has played in 54 postseason games in his career. The problem is that he’s never made it to the Conference Finals or beyond. In fact, he’s been bounced out of the first round more than he’s advanced to the second round.
“…In my first year in Cleveland, I’m an All-Star starter, All-NBA…,” Mitchell muses. “So, I feel like that’s part of it, but obviously you got to win. Realistically, I look at myself as one of the top 10-15 players in the league, but I haven’t made it to a Conference Finals.”
“So, in order for me to make the jump, I can’t sit here and get mad… this is an accolades-based world we live in…,” he continues exasperatedly. “It is what it is.”
The 28-year-old is using this as motivation.
“So, until that happens I got to continue to plug and plug,” he says. “I’m not shocked when I see it. It’s more like, ‘Alright bet!’… It’s more of a thank you to me, like every year I got something I gotta go get. There’s never a complacency.”
It Is What It Is
One could argue that Mitchell shouldn’t need the pressure of the Olympics to make him want to pursue a championship more.
Despite several players, analysts, and media outlets decrying ‘ring culture,’ a team’s primary pursuit at every level of basketball is winning a trophy. Whether that’s the high school playoffs, NCAA playoffs, NBA playoffs, or an offhand tournament, teams enter it with the desire to win it all. At the end of the day, rings matter so much because championships are the goal.
That being said, great players always find a way to get more out of themselves. If the thought of being an Olympic snub four years from now is what gets him over the hump, so be it.
