Donovan Mitchell on his recent engagement, Cavs exit from playoffs | NBA Summer League

Donovan Mitchell on his recent engagement, Cavs exit from playoffs | NBA Summer League

Another guest joining us here at the table and a big congratulations to begin the interview with Donovan Mitchell who decides to get engaged out here in Las Vegas. Congratulations. I appreciate it. Wasn’t it wasn’t in Vegas. We were on vacation. We were on vacation a few days ago, but thank you. Thank you. Um Yeah, man. Like a big burden off your chest to get that finally do it. Are you like the rest of us nervous as as heck when you do it? Yeah. I mean, um, it’s hard to keep secrets from her. She I’m I’m not really, you know, I don’t really what’s it called? You know, I’m wear it on my face. Yeah. Uh, so for this one to keep it for as long as I did. Everybody in her family knew. Everybody in my family knew. So, there were nights where I was up not falling asleep. She’s like, “What’s wrong?” I’m just like, I got a lot of stuff on my mind. Oh, smoochy smoochy. A look at that. It was great. It was dope. It worked out well. Shout out to everybody. Shout out to Russell Wilson and Sierra for helping out. Whoa. Name dropping time. Yeah. I got friends, too. Yeah. You know. Yeah. Yeah. Have a big time. That looks like that might hurt her hand. She going to need a sling. I know. It’s quite possibly like a little something. You got to work out her arm to be able to carry that thing around. Exactly. I told her, “Don’t wear it on stage, though.” So, that’s got to get you a fake one. You put that one in to say I can let her wear a fake. Well, congratulations. Uh, that’s big. It’s been a big year for you. First team, all NBA, sir. Uh, I know the season didn’t end how you would like it, but there’s a steal, by the way, by Noel. and Brown tries to get back to contend. A tough layup. Remember him Noel. Yeah, that’s right. Know about that. We’ll talk about the Mets here in a second. Um, how how do you is can they can you chalk up this year to being a step in the process or what how you digest what happened this year? What do you what are you saying? I mean, I talked about the other day with with Taylor and I it’s to me, you know, it’s it’s always when you’re when you’re in hindsight, it’s always like, okay, yeah, we’ve taken a step. It’s a you need this to take to the next level. But to be honest with you, and I think we all feel this way, this was a let down for for for us, man. Like we we let ourselves down, let the city down, let the organization down. This was, you know, we all felt it. We all felt like we were supposed to continue to, you know, we felt like we we paid our way last year. Okay, cool. We we beat Orlando. We took that step and whatever. And now this year we 64 wins. Everything lined up for us to to do that. And we didn’t take care of business. So that’s that’s the failure on our part. So now the biggest thing is, you know, understand it now. take it, accept it, and use it as fuel. As much as you guys make it about yourself and not happy with that, is there another component to it that Boston didn’t make it, New York didn’t make it, like as you mentioned, there was a path for you guys to get to the NBA finals this year. Yeah. And I think, you know, you got to give credit where credit is due. Indiana, they had a hell of a hell of a run, man. They they were they were phenomenal. Um, relentless. And but I think for us, you know, you don’t really look at other teams and be like, “Oh, okay. They lost, too.” I think that’s I think it’s more so like we should have been the ones like you know I mean we should be the ones in that position and you know I think that’s what’s tough and it’s tough to watch those games I had to try to force myself and I I’m probably watch maybe up until the finals maybe about a quarter of basketball um I couldn’t even couldn’t even I’m also half my you know family and friends are Knicks fans so I hear the updates from them uh for the the round after that and then you know um so it’s just one of those things where and then the finals have you hear you hear it non-stop and it just became to a point where I’m like, you know what, I don’t want to, you know, watch it as much. But it’s it was a let down, man. It it sucks, but you know, we use it as fuel and we’ll we’ll be ready for next year. Your development since you’ve been in Cleveland has been, I think, very underrated of of how you’ve turned into not just a like, here, let put the offense on my back guy, but the development of Darius Garland, of Evan Mobley, of basically everyone that’s been there. Is that something that you had a discussion with uh with Kenny or or obviously JB when they was there or is that just something you’ve seen and said, “Hey, like as your maturity, this is what I know we need to do to win or what I need to do to help this team win.” Um, it’s definitely it was definitely a conversation. I think it was something that, you know, like I you always talk about, everybody’s willing to sacrifice until it’s their turn. You know, and what does that look like? You know, what does that look like for me and, you know, understanding that the minutes were going to be down um points, all the things that I’ve been accustomed to in my career are going to be down in order to use that to develop. And that’s really my mindset was, you know, understanding that look, allow Evan to grow. Evan Moy, like it’s crazy. I tell you all the time what he’s what he’s doing now is phenomenal. And I’m not taking credit for that. and obso yeah leadership and empowerment which is huge but you know he puts the time in you know it’s one thing to lead but also to you know see somebody want it as bad as he does which is truly at his age and what he’s accomplished um and then also Darius Scarlet he was an allstar before I got here um so he’s just stepping back into form and you know for for those two guys just allowing them to continue to take those steps um cuz at the end of the day I know what I’m going to do I know what it’s going to do for the group for the Tai Drums of Alashia Max um whoever DeAndre Hunter Jared like continue to allow those guys to flourish. Um, makes it so so difficult to beat. Is it crazy that you did that and then first team all still like it’s like, oh, I get to do this and then now our team is better and I’m still at where I’m at respectwise within the league. It shows your talent and your skill set. But yeah, keep going. JG got a great question. I think I don’t maybe you in that conversation with Taylor, you talked about Evan Mobley being more vocal and demanding the ball from you and Darius. Yeah. I I’m curious. There was a big push out of Cleveland that you should have been in the MVP conversation this year despite your numbers taking a step back because what you did for the greater good. Do you believe that in order for your team to get where you want to go, does Evan Mobley need to be in the MVP conversation? 100% 10,000%. And I think, you know, I think two things can be true. You know, I think understanding that the MVP conversation, I think when we talk about the MVP, we think of 30, 10 and 10 like Jokic. We think of Shay Gil like averaging 30. You know, there’s so many different ways. And um I mean, if Evelyn turns around and is a 40 30 point per game score, I’m not complaining whatsoever. But I think what he does for our group, just that alone, outside of what I think we look at, we look at stats too much. Look what he’s look what his plus minus. Look what our record was when he wasn’t out there on the floor. like he’s just so important to our group. That alone gets him into the MP conversation. But I also feel the step that he’s going to take um you know for us to continue get that level, he has to be at least somewhat in that in that conversation. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause]

Donovan Mitchell joins the broadcast of the Cavaliers’ Summer League game vs. the Bucks as he speaks about his recent engagement to Coco Jones. Mitchell also reflects on Cleveland’s elimination from the NBA Playoffs and Evan Mobley’s growth.

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