10/5/22 Preseason Recap: Donovan Mitchell shines in Cavs debut as Cavs show encouraging signs

 The first night of the preseason should always be taken with a grain of salt. However, that's not what we do.

Cleveland's starters and rotation players looked great tonight, the offense was smooth, Darius Garland and Donovan Mitchell looked like they have been playing together for years, and the competition for the starting small forward is strong between Okoro and LeVert.

Darius Garland and Donovan Mitchell high-five
against the Sixers in the preseason opener

The Cavs looked fluid on offense tonight, that is my personal biggest takeaway. Last season, the constant slog when Darius Garland was off the floor was infuriating. Instead, tonight we got to see what we can look like with another great playmaker. 

Mitchell was on fire. Tonight he went 6/9 from the field, nice, while pouring in three three-pointers. However, despite the scoring. what impressed me the most was Mitchell's defensive effort and playmaking. Mitchell was making Harden work, especially in the first quarter. I can't think of a single time Harden had an easy bucket when matched up with Mitchell. Do I have stats for that? No, but I trust my eyes enough to put it in the recap. 

The play that caught my eyes the most on offense, though, was when Donovan Mitchell faked a pass to Kevin Love. The entire defense reacted by gravitating towards Love. Mitchell then took a step around the defender, and found Caris LeVert for an easy bucket on a cut. This sort of thing is why I'm so excited about Mitchell being ours. After Rubio's injury, there was not a single Cav who could do what Mitchell did tonight consistently. A Cavs team with two playmakers at the guard position of this caliber, is an extremely dangerous one.

The Cavs have one starting spot up for grabs, likely between Okoro and LeVert. Caris played a very good game today. He looked sharp, was making good cuts, and even made a nice contested three on the wing. Okoro, on the other hand, looked alright. There we clear improvements in his handle, and he took a movement three. He looked more confident and more assertive. He only took five shots in his limited minutes though, and couldn't knock down either of his three-point attempts. So far, it's +1 to Caris LeVert.

Onwards to Monday, when the Cavs play the Sixers again, this time in Cleveland. The deep dive into the new look Cavs continues then.