Kendrick Perkins on Donovan Mitchell saying people are going to write Cavs off: ‘You f—–g right we are’

After the Cleveland Cavaliers lost Game 5 of their second-round playoff series to the Indiana Pacers and got eliminated from the 2025 NBA Playoffs, Cavaliers star Donovan Mitchell claimed that people will doubt the team going forward.

He said in a press conference following his squad’s underwhelming playoff stint that people are going to “write us the f— off” but that the team will be back, with the critics perhaps serving as fuel.

Former Cavaliers big man Kendrick Perkins reacted to Mitchell’s comments and said the guard is “f—— right” that folks will write them off in light of them coming up well short of winning an NBA title.

“You damn right we are,” Perkins said of Mitchell’s comments. “You f—— right we are ’cause we don’t believe you. We don’t believe you.”

Mitchell has yet to prove that he can lead a team deep into the playoffs. He’s long been gifted at putting the ball through the net and even has a reputation for stepping up his game as a scorer in the playoffs, as he’s averaging 28.3 points per game for his playoff career.

But even though he’s enjoyed plenty of individual success in the playoffs, he is still searching for great collective success. Not only is Mitchell without an NBA championship to his name, but he has yet to even appear in a conference finals.

Probably the closest he’s come to making a conference finals appearance was in the 2021 NBA Playoffs when he was still with the Utah Jazz. The Jazz won Games 1 and 2 against the Los Angeles Clippers in the second round that season but proceeded to drop the last four contests of the best-of-seven series.

Mitchell just completed his eighth NBA season, and at this stage of his career, it’s reasonable to question whether it’s possible to reach the mountaintop or even advance past the second round with him leading an offense.

That might be more of an indication of how hard it is to win an NBA title than it is about Mitchell’s skill set, though, as he’s one of the premier offensive players in the league today.

All in all, it should be a highly fascinating offseason for the Cavaliers as the team and Mitchell will look to finally get over that second-round playoff hump next year.