{"id":628908,"date":"2026-05-07T13:07:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T13:07:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/628908\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T13:07:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T13:07:12","slug":"the-cavs-arent-going-anywhere-if-donovan-mitchell-cant-get-to-the-basket","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/628908\/","title":{"rendered":"The Cavs aren\u2019t going anywhere if Donovan Mitchell can\u2019t get to the basket"},"content":{"rendered":"

Donovan Mitchell wasn\u2019t happy with his lack of trips to the line after having just two free-throw attempts in the Cleveland Cavaliers<\/a>\u2019 Game 1 loss<\/a> to the Detroit Pistons<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just not getting the calls,\u201d Mitchell said afterward<\/a>. \u201cI don\u2019t know why. I don\u2019t flop, maybe that\u2019s why. \u2026 It\u2019s frustrating a little bit because I\u2019m such a dynamic driver.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Mitchell is a dynamic driver, or at least, he has been. For various reasons, he hasn\u2019t been able to showcase that this postseason.<\/p>\n

Through eight playoff games, Mitchell is taking just 22%<\/a> of his shots in the restricted area (40th percentile<\/a>). For comparison, he attempted 24%<\/a> of his shots there in the regular season (54th percentile<\/a>) and 30%<\/a> there last postseason (74th percentile<\/a>).<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a dramatic drop, and one we saw come into play in Game 1 against Detroit.<\/p>\n

Nine of Mitchell\u2019s 19 shots came in the paint, but only one was in the restricted area.<\/p>\n

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Here\u2019s a look at eight of his nine shot attempts in the paint (his field goal three minutes into the game isn\u2019t available on nba.com). In six of the eight attempts below, you\u2019ll notice that he either shies away from contact or quickly gets the shot up before contact can be made with defender. That\u2019s why most of these come in the five to 10-foot range, and not at the rim itself.<\/p>\n

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You can get to the line without getting to the rim. James Harden<\/a> did an excellent job of this in Game 1 as he had nine free-throw attempts. But you still have to be intentional about how you attack for that to happen. Harden, even though he\u2019s lost a step, isn\u2019t afraid to initiate contact and be the aggressor. That, more than anything, is why he\u2019s consistently gotten to the line throughout his career.<\/p>\n

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Not getting to the rim or basket is also reflective of the Cavs\u2019 lack of spacing overall. Cleveland\u2019s defense needs the trio of Dean Wade<\/a>, Evan Mobley<\/a>, and Jarrett Allen<\/a> (or at least Wade and Allen) to be passable. Having two or three players that teams are okay with ignoring on the perimeter clogs driving lanes and leads to turnover issues.<\/p>\n

At the same time, there\u2019s no getting around that in matchups against wing-heavy teams. They need their oversized frontcourt out there to be competitive. The Cavs are just gambling that their star backcourt can figure things out enough offensively. So far, they haven\u2019t been able to, at least not consistently.<\/p>\n

This has all resulted in what has been a disappointing postseason run for Mitchell.<\/p>\n

The scoring hasn\u2019t been there in either volume or efficiency. He currently has his second-lowest points per game in his playoff career (23.1) on his second-lowest efficiency since coming to Cleveland (49.5 effective field-goal percentage).<\/p>\n

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That has laid bare some of the other flaws in his game. If Mitchell isn\u2019t scoring, his lack of ability as a rebounder, defender, or playmaker means he\u2019s simply not positively impacting winning. As a result, the Cavs have been -3.2 points per 100 possessions better<\/a> in the playoffs when he\u2019s off the court compared to when he\u2019s on. That\u2019s the complete opposite of what we\u2019ve seen from Mitchell since his time in Cleveland.<\/p>\n

There are many reasons why the Cavs went seven games against a less talented Toronto Raptors<\/a> team and dropped Game 1 against Detroit. However, none more than the fact that Mitchell can\u2019t get to the basket and, by extension, the line like we\u2019ve come to expect. If he\u2019s not doing that, the scoring isn\u2019t going to be at the volume or efficiency this team needs, even if these issues aren\u2019t entirely his fault.<\/p>\n

If Mitchell or the team can\u2019t figure out how to get him easy looks inside, the offseason will be here far too early for the Cavs. This team can\u2019t survive Mitchell not playing as an All-NBA level scorer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Donovan Mitchell wasn\u2019t happy with his lack of trips to the line after having just two free-throw attempts…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":628909,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[852,8174,27496,4576,13054,51299,6418,27495,355,24896,99,2970],"class_list":["post-628908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-cleveland","tag-cleveland-cavaliers","tag-dean-wade","tag-detroit-pistons","tag-donovan-mitchell","tag-evan-mobley","tag-james-harden","tag-jarrett-allen","tag-nba","tag-oh","tag-sports","tag-toronto-raptors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=628908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628908\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/628909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=628908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=628908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=628908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}