a recent poll conducted by the Athletic,<\/a> All-Stars and others at All-Star weekend voted on who the best player in the NBA was right now. Mitchell received two votes, tying him for third and making him just one of four players with multiple votes.<\/p>\nWho else was received votes?<\/p>\n
Leading the poll was three-time MVP Nikola Jokic (five votes), who was followed by reigning MVP and champion Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (three votes). Mitchell was tied with Luka Doncic, while six other players received just one vote.<\/p>\n
Gilgeous-Alexander and Donic are currently the two leading the MVP race, with both averaging over the 30 point per game mark too. Jokic is still a candidate to win the award, but has missed some time this year and will be fighting to reach the NBA\u2019s 65 game minimum for players.<\/p>\n
As for Mitchell, he\u2019s generally not regarded as a top option for the award. Despite all the personal success he\u2019s had this season, the team isn\u2019t meeting its full potential. That\u2019s going to dissuade voters from looking at Mitchell this season.<\/p>\n
Why is Mitchell regarded as one of the best?<\/p>\n
Mitchell is one of the league\u2019s purest scorers, with the ability to score at all three levels. His a terrific three point shooter, came into the league primarily as a slasher who can throw down a dunk with authority, and has developed a smooth midrange jumper.<\/p>\n
He has also become a high-caliber playmaker this season, taking over point guard duties for large chunks of the season with Darius Garland missing time before his trade.<\/p>\n
Mitchell has always been in the playoffs every season of his career, and have never averaged less than 20 points per game in a season.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s one of the league\u2019s most dynamic threats and immediately turns the Cavaliers into contenders in the East every season, as long as he can maintain in the postseason. That\u2019ll be Mitchell\u2019s next steps.<\/p>\n
For Mitchell, it\u2019s time for him to prove that he really is one of the league\u2019s best. The Cavaliers have a few months left to climb the Eastern Conference, and get ready for what may be the most important playoff run of Mitchell\u2019s career. <\/a>If the Cavaliers are early exits again, big changes could be coming in the offseason.<\/p>\nSubscribe on YouTube for expert Cavs coverage:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a year where he\u2019s averaging over 30 points and leading the Cavaliers firmly to a playoff position…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":486627,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":["post-486626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=486626"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486626\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/486627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=486626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=486626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=486626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}