{"id":71016,"date":"2024-03-28T19:03:16","date_gmt":"2024-03-28T23:03:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=71016"},"modified":"2024-04-06T22:33:23","modified_gmt":"2024-04-07T02:33:23","slug":"cavs-mindset-ahead-donovan-mitchell-free-agency-revealed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/03\/28\/cavs-mindset-ahead-donovan-mitchell-free-agency-revealed\/","title":{"rendered":"Cavs Reveal Mindset As Donovan Mitchell Free Agency Looms"},"content":{"rendered":"

Confidence is key and Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert knows that as well as anyone. But when it comes to five-time All-Star, Donovan Mitchell<\/a>, the 62-year-old isn\u2019t blowing hot air. He genuinely believes Mitchell will sign a contract extension to remain with the Cavs after they traded for him in 2022.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been talking to him, sure, for the last couple of years<\/a> about extending this contract,\u201d Gilbert tells Larry Lage of The Associated Press. \u201cWe think he will extend. I think if you listen to him talk, he loves the city.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for why Mitchell will want to stay?<\/p>\n

\u201cHe loves the situation in Cleveland,\u201d Gilbert claims, \u201cbecause our players are very young and we\u2019re just kind of putting the core together that he\u2019s clearly the biggest part of.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mitchell, who signed a five-year contract with the Utah Jazz in 2020, is signed through the 2025-26 season. However, Mitchell can decline the player option on the final season of his contract and become a free agent next summer. He\u2019s eligible to sign a four-year, $200.4 million contract extension with the Cavs.<\/p>\n

Among the teams with marquee players who could become free agents by 2025, the Cavs may have the most difficult challenge<\/a>\u00a0ahead of them.<\/p>\n

The New York Knicks\u2019 Case<\/h3>\n

After two seasons with the Cavs, Mitchell will finally have the opportunity to play for a team in New York. For years, that organization has been thought to be the Knicks because of Mitchell\u2019s northeastern roots. Born in New York and raised in New Hampshire, Mitchell\u2019s father is a New York Mets executive.<\/p>\n

Looking at the Knicks\u2019 current roster construction, he\u2019d easily step into Donte DiVincenzo<\/a>\u2019s shoes. It would require the Knicks to rely less on breakout star Jalen Brunson<\/a>. For his part, Brunson has to be more willing to share the load. However, with Brunson\u2019s injury history, he and New York could see the benefit.<\/p>\n

Armed with four first-round picks in the 2024 NBA Draft, it wouldn\u2019t be surprising if they made a run<\/a> at Mitchell this offseason. With those picks and a player such as OG Anunoby<\/a> as the headliner, the Cavs may bite on the deal. Especially if they feel that\u2019s where Mitchell prefers to be.<\/p>\n

The Brooklyn Nets\u2019 Case<\/h3>\n

The Brooklyn Nets could also find themselves on Mitchell\u2019s shortlist. Despite their \u2018little brother\u2019 status in New York, the Nets have three star-caliber players on their roster. Major front office and coaching staff roles need to be filled. Subsequently, the Nets can bring in an assistant general manager and head coach with a plan for constructing a team around Mitchell.<\/p>\n

Should they retain Cam Thomas<\/a> and Nic Claxton<\/a> this offseason, their next course of action could be to pry Mitchell away from the Cavs. In this scenario, Mikal Bridges<\/a> has as much of a chance to be a foundational piece for the Nets as trade bait. With three first-round picks in the 2027 NBA Draft, they could further entice Cleveland. However, they appear to be a bigger threat to acquire Mitchell next offseason than this summer.<\/p>\n

The Cleveland Cavaliers\u2019 Case<\/h3>\n

Of course, Mitchell truly could remain in Cleveland. He\u2019s grown fond of his teammates, the franchise, and the city. The Cavs have also won plenty of games<\/a>, going 77-40 with Mitchell in the lineup. Their .658 win percentage with Mitchell would make them a 54-win team in a regular season.<\/p>\n

That being said, money and wins talk the loudest in contract negotiations. To that point, the Cavs can pay Mitchell more than any other team. They can also offer as much chance to win as any of the teams linked to him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Confidence is key and Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert knows that as well as anyone. But when it comes to five-time All-Star, Donovan Mitchell, the 62-year-old isn\u2019t blowing hot air. He genuinely believes Mitchell will sign a contract extension to remain with the Cavs after they traded for him in 2022. \u201cWe\u2019ve been talking to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":71020,"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":[9,1608,6,62,12,3],"tags":[900,297,4557],"class_list":["post-71016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cavaliers","category-basketball","category-nets","category-nba","category-knicks","category-news","tag-donovan-mitchell","tag-nba-free-agency","tag-nba-offseason"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71016","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\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71016"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71016\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}