Donovan Mitchell isn’t letting Colin Cowherd’s Jaylen Brown take slide.
The Cleveland Cavaliers guard took issue with Cowherd after the Boston Celtics’ stunning decision to trade Brown to the Philadelphia 76ers, a move that sent one of Mitchell’s close friends out of Boston even though Brown never asked to leave. Mitchell and Brown are tight, and Mitchell made it clear he wasn’t going to sit quietly while the situation got talked about the wrong way.
The trade also changes the landscape for Cleveland. The Cavaliers are set to see Philadelphia next season, and the matchup looks even heavier now that the 76ers have Brown alongside Tyrese Maxey, Joel Embiid and VJ Edgecombe in what the source described as their “Big 4.”
And Philadelphia may not be done. The 76ers have also reached out to LeBron James and want to sign the NBA legend. LeBron is not expected to re-sign with the Los Angeles Lakers, and he has been linked to the 76ers, Cavaliers, Miami Heat, Golden State Warriors, Minnesota Timberwolves and Denver Nuggets.
That creates another layer of urgency for Mitchell, who could use the summer to make his own recruiting pitch. The idea, according to the source, is that Mitchell needs to talk to LeBron and try to bring him back home. The article also floated a starting lineup of Harden, Mitchell, LeBron, Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen as a group that could contend for a championship.
Mitchell’s own future in Cleveland is just as big a storyline. Beginning July 7, he can sign an extension that would add four years and $277 million to his current contract. To get that deal, he would have to decline his player option for the 2027-28 season.
If he waits until next summer instead, the Cavaliers could offer him a five-year deal worth roughly $352 million. Next season will be Mitchell’s 10th in the NBA, and he’s already locked in to make $50,105,628.
He’s earned the money, too. Mitchell averaged 27.9 points per game for Cleveland last season and helped push the Cavaliers to the conference finals for the first time since 1992 without LeBron on the roster.
Still, the finish left a sour note. The New York Knicks swept the Cavaliers in the conference finals, and Cleveland went 8-10 in the playoffs overall.
That’s why this offseason feels loaded for both sides. Mitchell has to decide whether he wants to commit long term to a team that just got swept in the East Finals, while the Cavaliers have to decide whether they’re ready to hand him a massive contract if they’re not fully convinced he can be the true No. 1 on a title team.
For Mitchell, though, the message he sent after the conference finals was pretty direct. In a diary entry for Andscape, he said he wants to spend the rest of his NBA career with the Cavaliers.
“I feel like this [contract extension talk] has been a consistent theme every single season I've been here. And I thought it would go away once I signed the first extension, but here we are.
I said it [Monday night]: I love it here. I see growth.
I see a runway. I believe.
I've made Cleveland home outside of just basketball. I don't want to go.
I don't really know how else to blatantly say it to people for them to believe me.
"If they don't believe me, then hey, who cares? I don't care.
The organization knows and everybody in the building knows and feels the way I feel. I've been saying this since I first got to Cleveland.
I was called [out], Oh, he’s lying. I was about to sign my extension three years ago, Oh, he's lying.
Signed it. They're like, Oh, [he's] not signing the long term.
Whatever. There's always going to be something, I guess.
So, Cleveland, you know how I feel. This is just for everybody else."
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