Donovan Mitchell and Cavs teammates have been playing Xbox 4 hours a night to build ‘trust’ and ‘camaraderie’

Cleveland Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell revealed that he and his teammates have been playing Xbox about four hours a night in a way to work on building trust among each other.

“Once I leave here I’ll probably be playing until the [New York Mets] Mets play at 4 o’clock tomorrow,” Mitchell said.

The Cavs kept a good chunk of their roster from last season together from the 2024-25 campaign, but Mitchell believes that there is something to be gained from playing Xbox together as a team.

“That builds a trust, a camaraderie,” Mitchell said.

Right now, according to Mitchell, the Cavs’ games of choice are “College Football 25” and “NBA 2K.”

It’s nice to see the Cavs were able to bond during their training camp, and it’s important that the team stays united if it wants to make a deep playoff run in the 2024-25 season.

Last season, the Cavs made the playoffs – the second straight season they’ve done that since acquiring Mitchell – and won a playoff series against the Orlando Magic.

While the Magic took the Cavs to seven games in the first round, Cleveland won a winner-take-all Game 7 at home behind a great performance from Mitchell.

The All-Star guard had some massive performances in that series (he scored 50 points in a loss in Game 6), but Cavs fans won’t forget his 39 points in the series-clinching win in Game 7.

Unfortunately, Mitchell sat out the last two games of the second round of the playoffs against the Boston Celtics, and the Cavs lost that series in five games. Mitchell wasn’t the only core piece for the Cavs’ rotation that was injured, as Jarrett Allen did not play in the series due to a rib injury.

The Cavs clearly still believe in their core, as they extended the contracts of Mitchell, Evan Mobley and Allen this summer. They also brought back former lottery pick Isaac Okoro on a three-year deal and retained veteran big man Tristan Thompson.

Cleveland did add a rookie in first-round pick Jaylon Tyson, so hopefully he was able to use the Xbox sessions to learn more about his teammates during camp.

Mitchell and the Cavs will look to take all the trust and friendship they’ve built in camp into the regular season when it kicks off later this month.