Cleveland Cavaliers star guard Donovan Mitchell has been one of the best players in the league to start the 2022-23 season.
Though he was already considered to be one of the better shooting guards in the league prior to this season, he is now making a case for truly being the best shooting guard in the NBA.
He’s taken his playing style to the next level in his first campaign with the Cavs and even getting some MVP consideration. According to the man himself, this MVP-caliber play is not some kind of aberration.
In fact, he thinks it is quite sustainable.
“I think so,” he said when asked by Sam Amick of The Athletic whether or not he could keep up his current level of play. “I think so. I believe in myself. I’m confident in myself. I always have been. But at the end of the day, I’ve had 30 (points) the past two games and we haven’t won. So it doesn’t mean s—. That’s where I’m at. Yeah, (he) had 38 but we lost to the [Sacramento] Kings. We can’t lose to Golden State. That’s just my mindset throughout the year. And if we win, everything else takes care of itself for the rest of it. I feel I’m one of the best players in this league, and we have two of the best players on the defensive end in this league and two guys who can be All-Defensive team, and Darius Garland is an All-Star guy. We have so many pieces, excluding just myself, that if we just take care of what we’ve got to take care of, everything else will just fall in line.”
Mitchell has taken his scoring to another level so far this season. Though his career average of points per game is 24.1, he’s currently putting in 31.9 points per game this season.
Moreover, though he is a career 36.4 percent shooter from deep, he’s hitting a scorching 44.8 percent of his shots from beyond the arc with the Cavs.
Beyond that, his defensive ability has seemingly taken a huge leap. Though he was considered a defensive liability during his time with the Utah Jazz, he has proven to be a much better defender with the Cavs.
He’s a big reason why the Cavs are 8-3 on the season.
With that in mind, they have dropped two straight games. They lost 119-117 to the Los Angeles Clippers on Monday and dropped a contest versus the Sacramento Kings on Wednesday.
Mitchell did all he could against the Kings, however, recording 38 points.
Up next, the Cavs will take on the defending champion Golden State Warriors. It’ll be a great test for the young team from Cleveland.
The Cavs will look to get back to their winning ways against the Warriors before heading home to take on the Minnesota Timberwolves on Sunday.
