Donovan Mitchell is a better shooter than he gets credit for

Cavs news and links for Wednesday, August 4.

We’re 34 days away from the Cleveland Cavaliers’ first preseason game. Here’s your news and links for the day.

The first sip

It can be easy to overlook a star player’s second or third-best skill. That seems to happen with Donovan Mitchell. His explosiveness and ability to finish at the rim overshadow just how good of a shooter and three-level scorer he is. This can be easily seen in the below graph which maps out jump shooter efficiency this decade.

Mitchell’s place on this chart is impressive. He’s just under more respected shooters in Paul George and Damian Lillard. Even though Mitchell isn’t thought of as the same outside threat those are, he’s proven that he is. That is largely due to his proficiency as a pull-up shooter.

During the 2022-23 season, Mitchell connected on 39.2% of his 5.2 pull-up threes per game. That was good for the third-best mark in the league among players who took more than four a game trailing just Steph Curry and Tyrese Haliburton. That number dropped to 35% last year, but that is still solid for someone who spent a large portion of the season as the team’s lone perimeter on-ball threat and was dealing with knee issues since the beginning of March.

This was also seen in the midrange as most of these shots were pull-up jumpers. Although Mitchell primarily used the long two as a counter, he knocked them down at a 49.3% clip which put him in the 81st percentile.

Mitchell also excelled as a spot-up shooter nailing 40.7% of his 3.1 catch-and-shoot threes per game last season. This was the second-highest shooting percentage on the team among players who participated in at least 30 games behind only Sam Merrill (43.8%). The Cavs would like to generate this shot for Mitchell more often.

Kenny Atkinson was brought in to optimize the offense. One of the ways to do that is to increase Mitchell and Darius Garland’s opportunities on catch-and-shoot threes by altering how they’re used off-ball. Both have shown that they can be good pull-up shooters, but you’d like your offense to flow in a way that better utilizes that gravity for the other four players.

Whether or not Atkinson can do that remains to be seen. What we do know is that Mitchell has been one of the best shooters in the league since coming to Cleveland. It’s time he’s recognized as such.

Cavs news of the day

The Cavs are stretching Ricky Rubio’s salary over the next two seasons according to Keith Smith. This will turn the $1.3 million dead cap hit that was on the books for this season into a $425,000 hit this upcoming season and the two afterward. This gives the Cavs a slight bit more wiggle room when it comes to staying under the luxury tax.

The Cleveland Charge have announced their schedule for this upcoming season. They open the year on Saturday, November 9 at noon against the Indiana Mad Ants at the Public Auditorium. More information about their schedule can be found here.

Random Cavalier of the Day - Derek Anderson

Anderson played his first two seasons with the Cavs after being selected 13th overall in the 1997 NBA Draft. He contributed 11.7 points and 3.4 assists per game as a rookie. This was enough to get Anderson a spot on the All-Rookie second team.

The Cavs traded Anderson and Johnny Newman to the Los Angeles Clippers for Lamond Murray after his second season. Anderson went on to play 10 seasons in the league but had a hard time staying on the court. He appeared in over 65 games just four times. Anderson was also a part of the Miami Heat championship team in 2006.

Anderson has the distinct honor of being the tenth of 11 players in franchise history to wear 23. He will go down as being the last Cavalier to wear that number besides LeBron James.

WNBA schedule today

• Los Angeles Sparks vs. Indiana Fever - 7 PM, CBS Sports Network

Links of the day

• The vitriol WNBA players face for fouling Caitlin Clark is unacceptable — and racist
• Is hunting for big NBA free agents obsolete?
• Which of the 30 teams have the most or least continuity? ($)
• Guerschon Yabusele is ready for his second act in the NBA