CLEVELAND, Ohio — Somewhere over middle America, long after the cameras shut off and the box scores froze, Donovan Mitchell and Sam Merrill started to build something the Cavs are now benefiting from.
On nearly every road trip since they became teammates in 2023, the two sit side-by-side. Two screens glow. On Mitchell’s, the game from a few hours earlier plays in full, rewound and replayed like a scene study. On Merrill’s, a TV show flickers, but he’s actually watching Mitchell’s screen instead. Leaning closer, pausing possessions, pointing out the subtleties.
Mitchell is a film junkie. And from their very first flight, Merrill was one of the rare people he trusted to give unvarnished truth.
You should’ve passed that. That wasn’t the right read. That was a bad shot.
“When Sam first got here, he wasn’t really playing much,” Mitchell said. “So it started out with me asking him what he sees and being honest with me. It’s easy when you’re a guy like myself to kind of be told you’re doing everything amazing. But he’s a guy who I’ve known since before I got to the NBA … He’s always honest, and I love that about him. That’s kind of where our relationship has grown.”
An unlikely pairing: a multi-time All-Star and the 60th pick in 2020, later selected No. 1 in the 2022 G League draft. All it took was one season with the Charge before the Cavs realized Merrill belonged in the NBA. And then those flights began. Through honesty and shared curiosity, their chemistry took root.John Kuntz, cleveland.com
An unlikely pairing: a multi-time All-Star and the 60th pick in 2020, later selected No. 1 in the 2022 G League draft. All it took was one season with the Charge before the Cavs realized Merrill belonged in the NBA.
And then those flights began. Through honesty and shared curiosity, their chemistry took root.
In Monday’s 118–106 win over Milwaukee, that bond manifested as a perfect balance. Mitchell detonated early with 25 first-half points., finishing with 37. Merrill answered with 17 of his 20 after halftime. The Bucks defenders’ heads spun trying to keep up.
And since stepping into the starting lineup with Darius Garland sidelined to start the season, Merrill’s made the most of the added opportunities. Among two-man groups with at least 150 minutes together, Mitchell and Merrill own the fourth-best net rating (11.1) through 15 games.
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It feels like only the beginning of what Merrill can tap into. The flights will continue. The film will continue. The movement will never stop.
But Merrill’s rise, along with his confidence and his voice, didn’t start with one hot night. Or a contract. Or even Cleveland’s decision to commit to him this summer.
It began with him learning to trust in himself in a way he hadn’t before.
“I think my mindset is better this year,” Merrill admitted. “The ball didn’t go in last week. I still felt like I shot it well. And there were times last year where I’d have a tough stretch and would maybe let it get to my head a little bit.
“I’m just trying to keep that positive mindset, whether shots are going in or not.”
The night played through pain
The first quarter of Monday night’s game offered a quiet window into who Merrill is becoming.
On Milwaukee’s opening possession, Giannis Antetokounmpo barreled downhill. Merrill — giving up nearly 40 pounds — stepped in to slow him. His right shooting hand jammed awkwardly on the play, a surge of pain shooting through his fingers before the team later called it a sprain.
Before the official diagnosis, he walked toward the locker room with Cavs trainer Steve Spiro, with Kenny Atkinson and Merrill unsure whether the flamethrower would return at all, never mind whether he’d be able to shoot.
Cleveland was again without Garland (toe). Movement was scarce. Shooting was scarce. The Cavs needed Merrill, even if he wasn’t lighting it up from deep.
Instead of restricting himself to movement and serving as a decoy, he hit six 3s, dropping 12 points in the fourth quarter alone. He torched Milwaukee’s zone so thoroughly that Doc Rivers scrapped it within minutes.
It was the kind of performance Cleveland has come to expect. Motion that warps defenses, shooting that alters geometry, tempo that opens driving lanes, especially for Mitchell.
But it was the mindset behind it that mattered. He wasn’t rushing into playmaking from fear of mistakes. He was hunting his shot, attacking closeouts, trusting his work.
“He’s starting to get downhill a little bit because they’re chasing him all the time,” Atkinson, who compared Merrill to shooters like Kyle Korver, said. “He’s starting to get a little bit of a paint game, which I’m thrilled about. … Those are kind of playoff plays to me. The shooting’s great, but I love [that] he’s kind of expanding his game.
Last year, when Sam Merrill put the ball on the floor, he was thinking about survival, now he’s taking advantage of what the defense gives him, whether with for himself or creating for others. No longer having a one-track mind. Joshua Gunter, cleveland.comLearning to live with imperfection
Merrill’s recent growth didn’t come from a new shooting drill or a tweak in mechanics. He had to rewire his entire internal approach.
Last year, when he put the ball on the floor, he was thinking about survival, not success.
“I would get run off the line or drive a closeout, and all I could think was pass like, where am I gonna get to the next pass?” Merrill recalled. “… Now I feel like when I drive, I’m looking for my shot. Understanding that it’s not always gonna be there. And a lot of times it’s just [making] the right play.
“I feel like I can continue to grow in that area, but I’m fairly happy with the way I’ve started as far as that goes.”
When Sam Merrill arrived to Cleveland, his role was clearly defined: make shots or sit the bench. That created a mental block that Merrill had to overcome to tap into his full potential under Kenny Atkinson.Getty Images
That psychological shift can take years, especially for specialists whose playing time gets tied to makes and misses on a playoff-caliber roster.
And Merrill is his own harshest critic. He had to learn how to separate individual nights from long-term belief.
“I think there’s a difference between micro-confidence and macro-confidence,” Merrill said. “Last year, even throughout the summer, like, my shot just didn’t feel as good as I wanted it to. … This summer, I worked hard on getting my base back, getting consistent arc back, getting a little stronger, a little better shape, and that’s allowed me to just feel good about where I’m at and understand that bad nights are going to come.
“It’s a long season, you’re going to have bad stretches. Everyone does. But keeping that macro-confidence at the forefront.”
That’s the foundation of his leap.
Bad week? He doesn’t spiral. One-for-eight? He doesn’t hide. Defenses chase him? He keeps moving.
He learned the 82-game season is jagged, not linear. That understanding allowed him to tap into his full potential.
The freedom of stability
Even if Merrill won’t say it, Mitchell will: the contract mattered.
In June, Cleveland committed four years and $38 million to him. It wasn’t just a number. It was validation. Security.
“I don’t know if he feels this way, but I mean, whatever [contract] he got definitely helps,” Mitchell said for Merrill. “He’s being rewarded on what you do. And I’m not saying that to be funny. I’m serious. Being rewarded by being a ‘maniac in the head,’ it’s a pressure reliever. It’s real life.”
The contract allowed Merrill to stop auditioning and start expanding.
It freed him to explore. To remember he once ran offenses at Utah State and could handle, probe and manipulate.
It helped his voice grow too.
Sam Merrill sees the game with clarity. He communicates it without fear. He sits next to the franchise star and tells him the truth, and that makes his word hold weight in meetings surrounding the entire group.John Kuntz, cleveland.comA bond that continues to build
Mitchell and Merrill’s relationship is quietly one of the most important dynamics in Cleveland’s locker room. What began as mutual respect — two guys who once played pickup against each other in Utah — became trust in one another. Honesty. Daily film sessions. A shared language for how basketball should feel.
This is where Merrill’s voice matters. Not just to Mitchell, but to Cleveland’s ecosystem.
“He’s a guy that I can lean on and we can lean on each other to be honest, and then have those dialogues and you see how it’s helping everybody,” Mitchell said. “We’re looking at how can we help Evan? How can we help [De’Andre Hunter], [Jarrett Allen]. … Just different conversations. Those are the things you want to have.
“It’s great to have that level of accountability from your peers and a guy that you’re going to war with every night.”
And his voice comes with a rare perspective.
Merrill is the only player on the roster who has already lived inside a championship locker room. Back in Milwaukee, as a rookie in 2021, Merrill was absorbing everything quietly from the end of the bench. He wasn’t even part of the regular rotation. But he was there. He saw the daily habits, the conversations behind closed doors, the tension, the precision, the tiny winning behaviors that separate good teams from the ones that reach June.
Now he and Mitchell are trying to build their own version of that standard in Cleveland. And that level of accountability is crucial.
Merrill sees the game with clarity. He communicates it without fear. He sits next to the franchise star and tells him the truth, and that makes his word hold weight in meetings surrounding the entire group.
His presence is now part of the Cavs’ necessary scheme to compete for a title.
Merrill’s performance against the Bucks was only a microcosm of how far he’s come. The hours in the gym. The film sessions at 35,000 feet. The belief built possession by possession.
Stability didn’t just calm Merrill. It unlocked him. It opened the door. Now he’s walking through it with the full confidence of someone who finally understands his place in the league — and his importance to a Cavs team chasing something they’ve come to believe he’s essential to reaching.
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