Cavs ink Mitchell extension; FTN reacts

Big news for Cleveland fans on Tuesday morning, as ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported that the team has signed all-star guard Donovan Mitchell to a three-year, $150.3 million max contract extension through the 2026-27 season. Mitchell will also have a player option for 2027-28 which, if exercised, would bring the total to four years, $185 million. But maybe more importantly to the player, the deal provides the opportunity to hit the 10 years of service required to open the possibility of a five-year supermax extension in 2027 (when Mitchell is 30 years old), a deal that could exceed $380 million.

That’s a long way off for Cavaliers fans, who are surely focused on taking a deep breath now that their star guard, who was long rumored to be uncommitted to the club, is secured for the near future. The timeline of this extension coincides with the extension signed by Mitchell’s backcourt mate and fellow all-star, Darius Garland, who is under contract through the 2027-28 season. The next reckoning for this club comes in the frontcourt. Jarrett Allen’s contract runs out at the end of the 2025-26 season, and he’s sure to command more than the $20 million annual deal he’s on presently. Evan Mobley is going into the final year of his rookie contract, so he’ll be signing an expensive extension in the coming months as well. Either this team will press forward with this core group of four, or there will be a significant shakeup over the next season. With the dreaded “second apron” a real hurdle for ownership groups around the league, Dan Gilbert will have some expensive competitive decisions to make.

Cleveland hires Atkinson as new head coach

After a few weeks of purgatory, Cleveland announced last week that former Brooklyn Nets head man Kenny Atkinson would take over as their next coach. Atkinson, who spent the last three seasons as Steve Kerr’s top assistant in Golden State, reunites with two of his former Nets players in Allen and Caris LeVert. Both were developed under Atkinson’s tutelage in Brooklyn during their rebuilding period of the late 2010s. Now Cleveland is hoping that Atkinson can work some of that coaching magic with players who are a bit further along, including the 24-year-old Garland and 23-year-old Mobley. 

The Cavs today are in a much different state than Brooklyn was when Atkinson was hired there in 2016. Cleveland is a team that has won 99 regular season games across the last two seasons and is coming off an Eastern Conference semifinal exit at the hands of the eventual champions. If Atkinson can produce similar results in Cleveland, as we saw at times in his Nets tenure, the Cavs’ ceiling has gone up. Don’t forget, Atkinson coached a team that saw players like Joe Harris, Allen Crabbe, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, Jared Dudley, Rodions Kurucs and Treveon Graham all play 20 minutes or more per game. He coached that squad to a 42-40 record. Now, with what I perceive to be four (albeit fringe) all-star caliber players in his starting lineup, I’m intrigued to see what coach Atkinson can do with this group. I imagine Cleveland fans are as well.