Ahead of the 2024-25 postseason, Cavs All-Star Donovan Mitchell knows this is his best chance of winning a championship. After Mitchell and the Cavs won 60+ games, he believes his team is talented enough to knock off the champion Boston Celtics and win the 2025 NBA Finals.
In his third season with the Cavs, Mitchell says the team found its footing in 2024-25, emerging to the top of the Eastern Conference standings, where they stayed for most of the regular season, per Esquire’s Josh Rosenberg.
“When I got traded to Cleveland, people just assumed it would click right away, but you have to grow,” Mitchell says. “The real question is how you continue to get better throughout the season. We beat Boston at their place. But how do we respond tonight against Chicago? How can we be the best team possible?”
Despite dominating the regular season, including beating the Celtics twice in three tries, Mitchell knows people still doubt the Cavs as legitimate championship contenders.
“Once we do what we believe we can do,” Mitchell says, almost as if it’s a certainty, “that will definitely change.”
Mitchell is undoubtedly out to prove the Cavs’ naysayers wrong. After taking the final week of the regular season off, Mitchell’s positive update from head coach Kenny Atkinson is a step in the right direction. Donovan is expected to bounce back from his ankle injury and be 100 percent for the Cavs’ postseason run.
Kenny Atkinson’s Donovan Mitchell update before Cavs postseason
David Richard-Imagn Images
Head coach Kenny Atkinson revealed Cavs All-Star Donovan Mitchell will be ready for the postseason. As the Cavs wait to see who their first-round opponent will be, Atkinson provided an injury update on Mitchell.
Atkinson says Mitchell’s conditioning is the goal between now and the beginning of the playoffs, as the Cavs will look to make their highly anticipated deep postseason run, per the Associated Press and ESPN.
“I think he’ll be full on with practice. We’re going to have to scrimmage at some point, probably intersquad with refs, so he’ll participate in that,” coach Kenny Atkinson said. “The most important thing is how we build him up with the ankle rehab and then conditioning.”
In addition to Mitchell’s MVP-caliber season, Cavs All-Star Evan Mitchell is a Defensive Player of the Year candidate, and forward DeAndre Hunter has the second-best odds to win Sixth Man of the Year. The Cavs finished the regular season with a 64-18 record.
