The Cleveland Cavaliers and star guard Donovan Mitchell are continuing their partnership, as the two sides agreed to an extension on Tuesday.
After taking care of their first order of business by bringing Kenny Atkinson on board to be their new head coach, the Cavaliers have now locked up their superstar for their long-term future, agreeing to terms with Donovan Mitchell on a new three-year, $150.5 million maximum contract extension, according to ESPN’s senior NBA insider Adrian Wojnarowski.
The Cavaliers and Mitchell agreed to the deal that keeps the five-time All-Star guard with the Cavs and out of the free agency market. Mitchell had a player option on his current contract after next season, which will not be totally taken out of play in the new deal. According to Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com, Mitchell’s deal will have a player option in 2027-28, the final year of the three-year pact.
Mitchell is one of the NBA’s most dynamic scorers who can shoot from the perimeter and get to the hole at will. He has led the Cavaliers from being a mediocre Play-In Tournament team to a perennial playoff team in his two seasons with the organization. Acquired by Cleveland via a blockbuster trade with the Utah Jazz in 2022, Mitchell has contributed greatly to the Cavs success.
Last season, he posted 26.6 points, 5.1 rebounds, 6.1 assists and 1.8 steals per game while shooting 46.2% from the field and 36.8% from downtown. He has made the All-Star team in both seasons with the Cavaliers and scored a franchise-record 71 points on February 2, 2023 when he torched the Chicago Bulls.
Cleveland went 48-34 last season in an injury-plagued campaign for the roster as standout players Jarrett Allen and Darius Garland both missed significant time with various injuries. The season prior, the Cavs were 51-31, marking the team’s first 50-win season since LeBron James was a part of the team in 2017-18 and they also made the finals that year.
Embed from Getty ImagesThat success came under coach J.B. Bickerstaff, who was hired in 2019, after the disaster that was John Beilein, and went 170-159 in the regular season, however, the story changed in the playoffs going an underwhelming 6-11 with Cleveland. The Cavs reached the Eastern Conference semifinals, but lost 4-1 in that round to the eventual champion Boston Celtics.
The Cavaliers chose to fire Bickerstaff in order to keep Mitchell happy and eventually hired former Golden State Warriors assistant Atkinson. Atkinson was an assistant with the Warriors for the past three seasons, winning a championship in 2022, after he spent the 2020-21 season as an assistant coach with the Los Angeles Clippers, alongside Ty Lue. Before that, he was coach of the Brooklyn Nets from 2016-20, when he and the team parted ways on March 7, 2020 after a 28-34 campaign with the Nets.
Atkinson said in his introductory news conference on Monday that he, president of basketball of operations Koby Altman and others from the Cavs brass paid a visit to Mitchell’s “Spida Elite Camp” in Los Angeles for the nation’s best young guards.
While it was mostly a get-to-know-you-better meeting in Atkinson case, it was another opportunity for the Cavaliers to sell their vision for the future to Mitchell.
“We feel good about Donovan,” Altman said Monday.
“He’s in a great space mentally. He’s healthy. … He’s really invested in what we’re doing, and hopefully soon we’ll have more of a decisive answer on (a contract extension). But he’s been great. He’s been super involved and super collaborative and very, very much pro-Cleveland.”
The Cavs have not reached the Eastern Conference Finals since the days of James in 2018. After acquiring Mitchell via trade in 2022, the Cavs went 51-31 last season and had home-court advantage in the first round before getting knocked out in five games by the New York Knicks.
