CLEVELAND, Ohio — Cavs guard Donovan Mitchell wants the blame like he wants the ball, which is to say he wants it all the time.
During Cleveland‘s most recent premature playoff exit, Mitchell logged the 16th-highest usage rate (37.1%), which measures how many possessions a player “finished” with a shot, turnover, or free throw attempt, in playoff history (per basketball reference). After the Cavs’ five-game loss to Indiana, during which his burden was even heavier (38.1% usage), he asked for 100% of the responsibility.
The series was over. But Mitchell still hadn’t removed his Spida-Man mask.
“I feel like I’m always a guy who feels like I could have done something better,” Mitchell said during Wednesday’s exit interviews. “... Ultimately, as being ‘The Guy,’ with the success, you guys look at me. With the failures, you should look at me as well. That’s part of my job.
“I feel like with this group, yeah, there’s 18 guys out there, but at the end of the day, they all look to me because that’s my job. And they hate that I do it. They wish I didn’t put all the blame on myself. My mom for sure hates it. She wishes I was a little lighter on myself, but I don’t know any other way. I feel like it’s my job to be the leader of this group.”
In this regard, Mitchell performed his job perfectly during Cleveland‘s latest premature playoff exit. Over five games and 165 minutes, he hoisted 125 shots, or 68 more than any teammate. He also led the Cavs in points, steals, assists (tied) and free throw attempts, not to mention accountability.
In basketball circles, we call this a “heliocentric” approach. Mitchell is the sun in Cleveland‘s solar system. Other players revolve around him. Let your best player decide as many outcomes as possible.
In theory? Sensible. In practice? Mixed results.
Dating back to 1977-78 (the furthest basketball reference can re-trace usage statistics), only five of the top 80 (and two of the top 20) high-usage playoff runs have resulted in championships. Michael Jordan won four of them, and former Rockets center Hakeem Olajuwon won the fifth during Jordan’s mid-career retirement.
Essentially, this formula doesn’t win titles unless you’re among the best basketball players ever. So after an eighth straight season spent watching the conference finals from home, I have a question:
Can Mitchell become MJ?
If not, then perhaps he should adjust his playoff approach. Yes, Mitchell’s all-time offensive burden occurred during a playoff run in which three of Cleveland‘s key offensive players battled injury. This time.
But Mitchell claims three of history’s top 20 high-usage playoff runs, including two Utah postseasons (2020 and 2021), during which the Jazz depended on him even more than Cleveland did this year. He ranks top 65 in five of his eight playoff appearances, including all three in Cleveland. Based on this track record, there must be something about this style that appears to the star guard.
Important context: He has also only played with two teammates (Darius Garland and Bojan Bogdanovic) who averaged 20 points per game alongside him in the regular season. Only Garland (2023 Knicks series) has done so in the playoffs. When evaluating Mitchell’s omnipresence, it can be difficult to decide if he’s doing too much or reading the room.
“... Guys aren’t going to tell y’all what they’re going through,” Mitchell said. “Guys are going through stuff. (My job is) understanding that hey, such and such may not have it the same way they had it during the games where we were (winning). Sometimes it may be three extra shots for me, it may be three extra drives to the paint. It may be different things.
“It’s not like, oh, I’m just going to abandon what we’ve been doing. There’s reasons. There’s reasons. And for me, it’s my job. And I tell you all the time, some days it’s a step back. Every series, it wasn’t necessarily all this. It’s just reading. That’s my job as a leader.
“Not everybody’s going to understand that. Few do, which is why few are in my position to do what I do. My teammates trust me in that. My coaches trust me in that, I trust myself. And I’m not saying you feel this way, but I think the easy answer is to just throw that in. That’s my job to take that. It’s my job. It’s what I get paid to do. So yeah, I think it’s one of those things you kind of have to read the situation.”
Against Indiana, Mitchell inferred that Cleveland needed everything he could give. And while playing on a strained calf, he gave the Cavs 34.2 points per game on 42.4% shooting (54.7% true shooting) to go with 5.8 rebounds, 2.2 steals and 3.8 assists per game. Maybe he was right. Maybe pulling back would’ve resulted in uglier losses.
Garland (14 points per game on 34.2% shooting) and De’Andre Hunter could only do so much while playing with an injured toe and thumb, respectively. Ty Jerome (eight points per game on 30% shooting) nearly played himself out of Cleveland‘s rotation by series’ end. And Jarrett Allen (11 points, six rebounds combined in Games 4 and 5) regressed at the worst moment against Indiana.
What about Evan Mobley, though? Mobley, who Mitchell described this week as an All-NBA talent with top five player potential, ranked second on the Cavs in scoring but fourth in shot attempts during the conference semifinals. Twice, he scored 20 points against the Pacers on 66% shooting or better. And both times, he attempted two field goals or fewer in the fourth quarter.
Granted, Mobley rolled his ankle during the fourth quarter of Game 1 (one of the 20-point games in question). He missed Game 2 due to the same injury. But he looked spry enough over the final three games — 17.3 points, 9.7 rebounds per game on 53.1% shooting — to wonder if he could’ve done more.
Mobley will tell you he shares responsibility for his own involvement. “I’ve just gotta go be more active,” Mobley said Wednesday. “Whether that’s rebounding, whether that’s getting the ball somehow, you’ve just gotta be more active out there on the floor. Can’t go non-existent sometimes.”
Mobley can use some help, though. In a sport driven by perimeter play, big men only harbor so much control over their touches. And this is where Mitchell showed the most growth as a leader during the regular season.
Cleveland‘s All-Star guard logged the third-lowest usage of his career in an effort to spread wealth across Cleveland‘s offense. Garland and Mobley earned All-Star appearances as a result. And the Cavs figured this development would pay off two-fold during the playoffs.
First, Garland and Mobley would carry their increased confidence into the postseason. Second, Mitchell could pick his superman spots more carefully due to their ascent.
Turns out, his co-stars got hurt. Mitchell reacted (or overreacted) by falling back on old habits. And while he led Cleveland through adversity (and in most categories), the Cavs still lost in five games.
I don’t blame Mitchell for the result or his read of the team. But I do wonder if, given the history of high-usage stars and Mitchell’s own playoff track record, this loss reinforces an old lesson.
Namely: Delegation is part of his job too, both during and after a tough loss.
“There’s no reason he should be (assuming all blame),” Strus said of Mitchell. “That guy literally put us on his back too many nights, and we all understood that. We needed to be better as a team. All year it was about depth, it was all about strength in numbers and everything like that, and there’s no reason you can say when things are going good that it’s all because (of) strength in numbers, and then when things go bad, it’s because of one person. We all needed to do our part better. Guys needed to step up and play better. We didn’t and that happens.”