Donovan Mitchell isn’t tiptoeing around the LeBron James storyline.
The Cavaliers guard referred to the franchise icon as “the enemy” while talking with Ashley Nicole Moss, a blunt line that lands even harder given how many people expected James to circle back to Cleveland this summer. Mitchell said he believed James would end up with the Cavaliers or the Golden State Warriors, and while he wanted the chance to play alongside him, he made it clear he’s not going to let the miss derail him.
Instead, James chose Philadelphia. He signed a two-year contract with the 76ers, a move that stunned plenty around the league and set up an immediate meeting with Cleveland to open the season. The Cavaliers will face James and the 76ers in Philadelphia to begin the year, and the atmosphere figures to be loud.
Mitchell has plenty of reason to stay focused on his own team. Cleveland traded for him before the 2022-23 season, and he’s delivered exactly the kind of production the franchise hoped for: 26.7 points per game in the regular season and 27.3 in the playoffs in a Cavaliers uniform. Last season, he pushed Cleveland to the Eastern Conference Finals, the franchise’s first trip there since 1992 without James.
The run ended with a sweep at the hands of the New York Knicks, but Cleveland still backed Mitchell in a major way. The front office handed him a four-year, $273 million maximum contract extension this offseason, a clear sign of how central he is to what the Cavaliers are building.
Mitchell’s scoring resume keeps growing, too. He enters this season with career averages of 25.1 points per game in the regular season and 27.8 in the playoffs across his time with the Jazz and Cavaliers. A seven-time All-Star, he’s already been the kind of high-end engine that can carry a team deep into the spring.
Cleveland’s new-look starting five is loaded on paper: James Harden, Mitchell, Peyton Watson, Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen. And while the matchup with Philadelphia will draw the early spotlight, the larger conversation around James still looms over Cleveland.
That’s because James remains the biggest name in franchise history. He’s the best player Cleveland has ever had, and maybe the best player the league has ever seen.
He sits first all-time in points, field goals, games and minutes, and he’s the only player ranked top five in both points and assists. He’s also the only player to win three Finals MVPs with three teams, the only one with 40,000 points, 10,000 rebounds and 10,000 assists, and the only one to reach 50,000 total points across the regular season and playoffs.
Across his Cavaliers, Heat and Lakers career, James has averaged 26.8 points, 7.5 rebounds, 7.4 assists, 1.5 steals and 0.7 blocks per game. His trophy case includes four MVPs, four championships, four Finals MVPs, a scoring title and an assists title.
And even with James now in Philadelphia on a two-year, $8 million deal alongside Tyrese Maxey, Jaylen Brown and Joel Embiid, the Cleveland connection isn’t going anywhere. The Cavaliers will retire his No. 23 jersey one day, and there’s already a chance fans will see 45 hanging next to it, too.
For now, Mitchell gets the job of chasing what James once delivered in Cleveland. He’ll try to do what LeBron did in 2016, when the Cavaliers beat the 73-9 Golden State Warriors for the championship.
In Other News...
Kenny Atkinson Is Challenging The Cavs In One Crucial Way
The Cavaliers have taken their preseason work overseas, using training camp in Malaga, Spain, as more than just a chance to get shots up and legs under them. Kenny Atkinson has framed the trip as a test of adaptation, with the staff leaning into team bonding, scrimmaging, conditioning and mental drills as Cleveland tries to build a sharper foundation before the season begins. Peyton Watson and the rest of the group are getting a very different kind of camp than the usual routine back home.
What makes the setup notable is the emphasis on the part of the game that can be easy to overlook in October: how a team responds when the environment changes and the work gets uncomfortable. Atkinson has made mental performance a priority in Malaga, and the Cavaliers are trying to turn that into camaraderie and resilience as they prepare for what comes next. The real question is how much of that edge carries over once the trip ends and the games start to count. [Read more 🡒]
James Harden Just Added An Unexpected Twist To Clevelands Future
During the Cavaliers training camp in Spain, James Harden gave a glimpse of how he sees the later stages of his career, saying he has interest in eventually playing basketball in Europe or Spain. It was an interesting note to surface while Cleveland was working overseas, especially coming from a player who only recently committed to the team on a three-year contract and appears locked in on the present.
For now, the message is less about departure than possibility. Harden did not offer a timeline or suggest anything is imminent, but the idea of a future overseas stint adds a different layer to his Cleveland tenure and gives the Cavs something else to think about as they move through camp abroad. [Read more 🡒]
Cavaliers Had To Move Fast After LeBron Changed Everything
LeBron James decision on July 24, 2026, to join the Philadelphia 76ers sent a jolt through a Cavaliers fan base that had widely expected a return to Cleveland. Kenny Atkinson did not hide the disappointment, but he made clear the response inside the building mattered just as much as the setback itself, with the front office moving quickly to reshape the roster around a different plan.
Instead of sitting still, Cleveland reacted with a flurry of moves that included signing Mario Hezonja, acquiring Peyton Watson and bringing back James Harden. The Cavaliers now have an immediate early-season measuring stick too, with their 2026-27 opener coming against the 76ers, a matchup that will keep the LeBron storyline tied to both teams for the foreseeable future. [Read more 🡒]