Donovan Mitchell was a champion when he was healthy

The Cleveland Cavaliers didn’t make any major additions to the roster this past offseason, instead signing Donovan Mitchell, Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley to extensions. Mitchell is optimistic about Cleveland’s chances of competing for a title with their existing roster.

“We’re championship contenders when we’re healthy,” Mitchell told Andscape’s Marc J. Spears. “I feel like we grew in a lot of ways last year. We played a lot of different ways. During that stretch we kept going, obviously DG (Darius Garland) and Evan (Mobley) were hurt. But we found something that It can really help us get to the next level. So the trick is how can we continue to implement that style of play for 82 games (regular season games) and then win the last 16 (playoffs). The reasons why I decided to sign were because I believe in our development. I believe in the hunger and the will that we have as a group.

“And so I believe we’re favored contenders when we’re healthy. But at the end of the day, I can tell you this: We’ve got to go out there and continue to prove it every day. We did that.” We’ve only done one more game than I did two years ago. So now the question is how we can find ways to keep winning and building and moving forward. And we haven’t achieved what we needed to achieve. I’ve done a lot, but we still have more to go.”