{"id":139529,"date":"2025-05-14T08:22:57","date_gmt":"2025-05-14T12:22:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=139529"},"modified":"2025-05-14T08:22:57","modified_gmt":"2025-05-14T12:22:57","slug":"cavaliers-donovan-mitchell-disappointing-playoff-exit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/05\/14\/cavaliers-donovan-mitchell-disappointing-playoff-exit\/","title":{"rendered":"Cavaliers Star Gives No Indication He Wants Out of Cleveland"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s a familiar story for Cleveland Cavaliers star Donovan Mitchell<\/a>: Another early playoff exit; an experience he knows all too well from his time with the Utah Jazz<\/a>, and now with the Cavs. Mitchell’s status for Game 5 was uncertain for a while following his ankle injury at halftime in Game 4, but the six-time all-star pulled through and did all he could to pull his team through on the back of a 35-point performance. Ultimately, Cleveland didn’t have enough to push the Indiana Pacers<\/a> to another game. All season, the Cavaliers were accused of being a regular-season team, and they’ll have that title hanging over their heads going into the 2025-26 season. However, Mitchell isn’t worried about the outside noise and expects<\/em> to be counted out, again<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Cavaliers Star Gives No Indication He Wants Out of Cleveland<\/h2>\n

Cleveland Cavaliers star Donovan Mitchell expects to be back next year; believes Cavs will be written off again<\/h3>\n

In a series where Mitchell had to do the brunt of the work due to injuries from his teammates, you have to credit him for doing everything to carry his team. Darius Garland<\/a> missed the first two games of the series against Indiana. On top of that, Evan Mobley<\/a>, reigning Defensive Player of the Year, sat out Game 2, as did De’Andre Hunter<\/a>. While Garland returned in Game 3, he was clearly still hindered, and his production wasn’t near what the Cavs needed. As for Mitchell, it was an entirely different story. He scored 33, 48, 43, 12, and 35 points in five games. Had he not sat out in the second half of Game 4 after injuring his ankle, he very well may have secured another 30-point-plus performance.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the numbers didn’t result in winning. A dejected Mitchell sat at the mic postgame to reflect on the series loss<\/a>, including the blown lead the Cavs gave up in Game 5. The good news, if any can be taken at such a time, is that Mitchell strongly indicated he has no plans to leave Cleveland, and expects the Cavs to roar back next season.<\/p>\n

\u201cCouldn\u2019t believe it. Didn\u2019t want to believe it. It\u2019s tough to win in this league. Give them credit. We didn\u2019t do the things necessary,” <\/em>Mitchell said, then continued on looking ahead to next season.\u00a0\u201cGetting beat down like this and y\u2019all are gonna write some s*** about us, man. And that\u2019s gonna be fuel for everybody. That\u2019s what it takes. I\u2019ve been here. We understand. We just gotta use it as fuel for next year. Y\u2019all gonna write us the f*** off, man. But will be back. We let the city down, we let each other down, but we will be back. Everybody\u2019s gonna write us off. It\u2019s not personal. So what are we gonna do about it next year?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Is running it back an option?<\/h3>\n

Generally speaking, the notion of breaking up a 64-win team, not to mention the top seed in their conference all season long, sounds insane. That said, the Cavaliers have been running with their current roster since Mitchell arrived in Cleveland. As a starting five, Mitchell, Garland, Mobley, Jarrett Allen<\/a>, and Max Strus<\/a> were electric all year, and one of the best starting lineups across the league.\u00a0As a group, they’ve only improved and succeeded more in the regular season, but the translation hasn’t shifted into the postseason.<\/p>\n

\"Cleveland
Apr 28, 2025; Miami, Florida, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell (45) celebrates with center Jarrett Allen (31) against the Miami Heat in the second quarter during game four for the first round of the 2025 NBA Playoffs at Kaseya Center. Mandatory Credit: Sam Navarro-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

However, considering a third consecutive season of going out early in the playoffs could lead to some changes. It’s not about blitzing through the regular season and winning a first-round series against an eight-seed; it’s not enough. It’s certainly not enough to get stymied in round two and left behind in the dust again. Where Cleveland goes from here is uncertain, but becoming a championship-calibre team is the next step. Today, the Cavaliers are not there.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

\u00a9 David Richard-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

\n

\u00a9 Sam Navarro-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s a familiar story for Cleveland Cavaliers star Donovan Mitchell: Another early playoff exit; an experience he knows all too well from his time with the Utah Jazz, and now with the Cavs. Mitchell’s status for Game 5 was uncertain for a while following his ankle injury at halftime in Game 4, but the six-time […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5081,"featured_media":139530,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9,1608,62],"tags":[1937,1875,900,3966,1043,1478],"class_list":["post-139529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cavaliers","category-basketball","category-nba","tag-darius-garland","tag-deandre-hunter","tag-donovan-mitchell","tag-evan-mobley","tag-jarrett-allen","tag-max-strus"],"modified_by":"Aaron J Zacharias","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5081"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139529"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139529\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":139532,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139529\/revisions\/139532"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}