ESPN’s Brian Windhorst seemingly doesn’t believe that fans of the Cleveland Cavaliers need to worry about Donovan Mitchell leaving the team to join the New York Knicks.
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“I don’t know if the Donovan Mitchell Knicks thing is really still a possibility,” Windhorst said. “I guess it is because he can be a free agent in a year. I don’t know how Donovan feels. I don’t know how he feels, but I gotta imagine as a kid from New York who wanted to play for the Knicks in 2022, that’s where he wanted to get traded. It’s not an insult to Cleveland. I’m from Cleveland. I’m not insulting it. He wanted to be a Knick. He’s gotta be looking at what Jalen Brunson has and feeling like, ‘Damn, that could have been me.'”
Last month, Stephen A. Smith of ESPN — who is a longtime fan of the Knicks — said that he wanted to see Mitchell traded to New York so that Julius Randle “can’t even think about being a No. 1 option.”
Also, in November of last year, Joe Ingles said that he thinks his former teammate in Mitchell will be a member of the Knicks franchise one day.
Mitchell is currently in his second season playing for the Cavaliers, who have been one of the hottest teams in the NBA over the last few months. He has logged 46 games with Cleveland so far in the 2023-24 regular season and is averaging 28.2 points, 5.4 rebounds 6.2 assists and 1.8 steals per game while shooting 47.4 percent from the field and 37.0 percent from 3-point range.
He starred in the Cavaliers’ dramatic win over Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks on Tuesday. Max Strus hit a game-winner from more than 50 feet away from the basket to secure a two-point win over Dallas.
MAX STRUS WINS IT FROM BEHIND HALF COURT OMG pic.twitter.com/qYiqn1iiWE
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Mitchell led the way for the Cavaliers in the scoring column with 31 points on 11-of-20 shooting from the floor and 7-of-11 from deep. He was one of two players to finish with 20-plus points for Cleveland, as Strus dropped 21. Jarrett Allen just missed out on joining the club with 19 points.
The Cavaliers now own a 2-2 record after the All-Star break following their win over the Mavericks. Their other win came against the Washington Wizards on Feb. 25. Before picking up wins in each of its last two games, Cleveland lost to the Orlando Magic and Philadelphia 76ers in its first two games after the break.
Mitchell will attempt to carry over his excellent scoring performance from Tuesday into the team’s road matchup versus the Chicago Bulls on Wednesday. The Bulls have lost two of their last three games, with those losses coming against the Boston Celtics and Detroit Pistons.
