{"id":88463,"date":"2022-10-06T04:56:02","date_gmt":"2022-10-06T04:56:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/cleveland-cavaliers-star-donovan-mitchell-debuts-for-his-new-team-and-it-simply-felt-a-little-different\/"},"modified":"2022-10-06T04:56:02","modified_gmt":"2022-10-06T04:56:02","slug":"cleveland-cavaliers-star-donovan-mitchell-debuts-for-his-new-team-and-it-simply-felt-a-little-different","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/cleveland-cavaliers-star-donovan-mitchell-debuts-for-his-new-team-and-it-simply-felt-a-little-different\/","title":{"rendered":"Cleveland Cavaliers star Donovan Mitchell debuts for his new team, and it simply felt &#8216;a little different&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div class=\"article-meta\"><span class=\"timestamp\" data-behavior=\"date_time\" data-date=\"2022-10-06T02:45:00Z\"><span class=\"time\" data-dateformat=\"time1\" data-showtimezone=\"true\">10:45 PM ET<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<ul class=\"authors\">\n<li>\n<div class=\"author-img\"><\/div>\n<p>Tim Bontemps<span>ESPN <\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p>PHILADELPHIA &#8212; Less than five weeks since being acquired by the Cleveland Cavaliers in a stunning blockbuster of a trade to cap a frenetic offseason in the NBA, Donovan Mitchell made his debut for the Cavaliers Wednesday in Cleveland&#8217;s preseason opener.<\/p>\n<p>And, after finishing with 16 points on 6-for-9 shooting, including 3-for-4 from 3-point range, to go with five assists in 19 minutes in a 113-112 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers at Wells Fargo Center, Mitchell admitted the idea of \u200b\u200bputting on a different jersey than the Utah Jazz one he wore the first five years of his career will take some getting used to.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;One hundred percent,&#8221; Mitchell said with a smile, when asked if it felt weird wearing a different jersey for the first time.  &#8220;It just didn&#8217;t feel real &#8230; it still didn&#8217;t hit me yet.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Mitchell said he spent Monday looking out the window of the Four Seasons high above downtown Philadelphia, and that it was only then that it really sunk in that he was about to be officially playing for another team for the first time.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Today, I just kind of sat there and had one of those moments where you sit there and look out and see everything and it&#8217;s like, &#8216;Wow. It&#8217;s really here&#8217;,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Then once you get on the court, basketball is basketball. But all the little things, it&#8217;s definitely weird. A little different. But I&#8217;m excited. It&#8217;s going the way I thought it would, in a good way.&#8221;<\/p>\n<aside class=\"inline editorial float-r\" data-behavior=\"article_related\">\n<p>2 Related<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Mitchell&#8217;s arrival in Cleveland to augment a burgeoning young core featuring All-Stars Darius Garland and Jarrett Allen and runner up for last season&#8217;s Rookie of the Year award in Evan Mobley has the Cavaliers hoping this season will mark an uptick in fortunes to places the franchise hasn &#8216;t seen in decades when LeBron James wasn&#8217;t in town.<\/p>\n<p>The last time Cleveland made the playoffs without James?  The 1997-98 season.  The last time the Cavaliers won a playoff series without him?  Thirty seasons ago, in the 1992-93 campaign, when Cleveland was swept by Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls in four games in the Eastern Conference semifinals.<\/p>\n<p>But to do those things &#8212; particularly in what is arguably the deepest version of the Eastern Conference the NBA has seen in a generation or more &#8212; Cleveland will first need to get its two ball-dominant guards, Mitchell and Garland, on the same page.<\/p>\n<p>Before Wednesday night&#8217;s game, Cavaliers coach JB Bickerstaff laid out the criteria that will show that process is taking hold, saying the focus was on avoiding playing &#8220;your turn, my turn&#8221; basketball.<\/p>\n<p>Afterward, he, Garland and Mitchell all were pleased with how things came together in their first dry run against another team.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI thought it was pretty seamless,\u201d Bickerstaff said.  &#8220;The way they played together, the way the ball moved, everybody got involved &#8230; as long as we play in the same style we want to play, where it isn&#8217;t just based on one guy, but based on the team, I think it&#8217;s going to work out well for us.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>And, for the most part, it did Wednesday night.  Mitchell&#8217;s first make as a Cavalier &#8212; a 3-pointer from the right wing &#8212; came off an assist from Garland, who finished with 12 points and four assists on 4-for-7 shooting in 15 minutes, and was sandwiched between Mitchell setting up Kevin Love for a pair of triples himself.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think we did a lot of things well,&#8221; Mitchell said.  &#8220;You walk up the floor and it&#8217;s like, &#8216;He&#8217;s got it.&#8217;  But it&#8217;s not like, &#8216;He&#8217;s got it in isolation.&#8217;  It&#8217;s like, he&#8217;s got it, make a play, create &#8230; I said in the locker room, we didn&#8217;t call a lot of plays in the first half. That speaks to our ball movement.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>After Cleveland was almost solely reliant on Garland to both create offense for himself and his teammates last season, he was thrilled at his opening look at life playing alongside Mitchell &#8212; even within the meaningless confines of the first half of Cleveland&#8217;s first preseason game, in large part because of how it&#8217;s going to take pressure off of him to do everything offensively.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think it was the spacing, for me,&#8221; Garland said, when asked what he noticed most about playing next to Mitchell.  &#8220;Just coming off pick and rolls, there&#8217;s so many threats on the opposite side, and it&#8217;s just a lot easier &#8230; you can just pick your poison. You have to live with it.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It was just fun out there, to be honest with you.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>While Cleveland is waiting to get forward Evan Mobley back on the court after he a sprained ankle over the weekend, the Cavaliers also have another decision to make between now and opening night: Who will start at small forward alongside Garland, Mitchell, Mobley and Allen.<\/p>\n<p>There are a few possible options, including Caris LeVert, who started Wednesday&#8217;s game, Dean Wade, who hit 3 triples off the bench, and Isaac Okoro, the fifth overall pick in the 2020 NBA Draft.  Bickerstaff said his ultimate decision on who to plug in there will be determined by how they can help unlock the best attributes of the four stars around them.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s just going to be truly about the fit, and that&#8217;s going to be who makes those four guys better,&#8221; he said.  &#8220;Who helps them on the offensive end of the floor? Who helps them on the defensive end of the floor? Who can protect guys in certain situations defensively? How does it help our matchups? Offensively, how does it help us space the floor? Those are all things we&#8217;re taking into consideration.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>    .<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>10:45 PM ET Tim BontempsESPN PHILADELPHIA &#8212; Less than five weeks since being acquired by the Cleveland Cavaliers in a stunning blockbuster of a trade to cap a frenetic offseason in the NBA, Donovan Mitchell made his debut for the Cavaliers Wednesday in Cleveland&#8217;s preseason opener. And, after finishing with 16 points on 6-for-9 shooting, &hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"> <a class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/cleveland-cavaliers-star-donovan-mitchell-debuts-for-his-new-team-and-it-simply-felt-a-little-different\/\"> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Cleveland Cavaliers star Donovan Mitchell debuts for his new team, and it simply felt &#8216;a little different&#8217;<\/span> Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[6],"tags":[18645,3051,68,46,1230],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":88774,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/new-look-cleveland-cavaliers-showcase-potential-in-113-112-preseason-loss-to-philadelphia-76ers\/","url_meta":{"origin":88463,"position":0},"title":"New-look Cleveland Cavaliers showcase potential in 113-112 preseason loss to Philadelphia 76ers","date":"October 6, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"PHILADELPHIA -- With palpable excitement surrounding the team and \u201cimmaculate vibes\u201d in the air during the early days of training camp, the Cleveland Cavaliers wanted to see how they would look against an actual NBA opponent.pretty good.This wasn't just any opponent either. It was the star-studded, championship-hopeful Philadelphia 76ers who\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Sports&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleveland.com\/resizer\/K6UFh7X7ck3glyYpGZ7ha8BW954=\/1280x0\/smart\/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com\/advancelocal\/L4T5FHOPM5BJ3E4VUXM4JPJ2PY.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":63127,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/cleveland-cavaliers-acquire-utah-jazz-star-donovan-mitchell-in-blockbuster-trade\/","url_meta":{"origin":88463,"position":1},"title":"Cleveland Cavaliers acquire Utah Jazz star Donovan Mitchell in blockbuster trade","date":"September 1, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Utah Jazz star Donovan Mitchell is heading to the Cleveland Cavaliers in a blockbuster deal, sources told ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski on Thursday.The Jazz are receiving Lauri Markkanen, Ochai Agbaji, Collin Sexton, Cleveland's unprotected first-round picks in 2025, 2027 and 2029 as well as pick swaps in 2026 and 2028, sources\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Sports&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":93808,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/cavaliers-dont-give-coach-jb-bickerstaff-what-he-wanted-in-113-97-preseason-loss-to-philadelphia-76ers\/","url_meta":{"origin":88463,"position":2},"title":"Cavaliers don&#8217;t give coach JB Bickerstaff what he wanted in 113-97 preseason loss to Philadelphia 76ers","date":"October 11, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"CLEVELAND, Ohio -- For the Cleveland Cavaliers, it's a good thing it's only preseason. They don't look ready for the real thing quite yet.Playing their second exhibition against the Philadelphia 76ers in five days, the Cavs lost, 113-97, in front of a lively Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse crowd on Monday night.As\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Sports&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleveland.com\/resizer\/K6UFh7X7ck3glyYpGZ7ha8BW954=\/1280x0\/smart\/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com\/advancelocal\/L4T5FHOPM5BJ3E4VUXM4JPJ2PY.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":63643,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/winners-and-losers-in-donovan-mitchell-trade-to-cavaliers\/","url_meta":{"origin":88463,"position":3},"title":"Winners and losers in Donovan Mitchell trade to Cavaliers","date":"September 2, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"In a verboten journalistic move, I am going to plunge a knife into the heart of this story in the first paragraph: We will not know who are the real winners and losers of this trade for years. Maybe seven years. There are just too many variables. We don't know\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Sports&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":102643,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/donovan-mitchells-cleveland-cavaliers-debut-spoiled-by-toronto-raptors-in-108-105-opening-night-loss\/","url_meta":{"origin":88463,"position":4},"title":"Donovan Mitchell&#8217;s Cleveland Cavaliers debut spoiled by Toronto Raptors in 108-105 opening night loss","date":"October 20, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"TORONTO -- The Toronto Raptors spoiled Donovan Mitchell's Cleveland Cavaliers debut.Inside a lively Scotiabank Arena, with a sellout crowd that was even more amped than usual for the opener, Cleveland's playoff quest began with a 108-105 loss.There were plenty of moments throughout the game when Mitchell showed exactly why the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Sports&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleveland.com\/resizer\/K6UFh7X7ck3glyYpGZ7ha8BW954=\/1280x0\/smart\/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com\/advancelocal\/L4T5FHOPM5BJ3E4VUXM4JPJ2PY.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":64368,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/rj-barrett-deal-was-knicks-donovan-mitchell-consolation\/","url_meta":{"origin":88463,"position":5},"title":"RJ Barrett deal was Knicks Donovan Mitchell consolation","date":"September 3, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"The Knicks organization is \u201cshocked and disappointed'' it didn't get its man Donovan Mitchell and that he's heading to an Eastern Conference rival, the Cavaliers. Cleveland will form a backcourt of Darius Garland and Mitchell and, on paper, clearly are superior to the Knicks. \u201cJazz Stinger,\u201d indeed. There are indications\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Sports&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"RJ Barrett #9 of the New York Knicks ","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/09\/rj-barrett-knicks-donovan-mitchell.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/a.espncdn.com\/combiner\/i?img=\/photo\/2022\/1006\/r1071657_1296x729_16-9.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88463"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88463\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}