Exclusive: Iman Shumpert hits Cavs with harsh Donovan Mitchell reality

10/05/2024 01:50 PM

Iman Shumpert is a big fan of the Cleveland Cavaliers’ Donovan Mitchell — but he believes there’s a ceiling with him as the lead man.

Shumpert — who is known for winning a championship with the Cavs back in 2016 — explained that while Mitchell is one of the top players in the league, his undersized frame may limit his team’s chances once they get to the playoffs.

“Donovan Mitchell is one of those players,” says Shumpert in a one-on-one interview while speaking on behalf of his new show, Taking One For The Team. “He’s just a special player, a special dynamic. I think he pulls a lot of big moments out, I just think he’s undersized and he might have to switch his approach in the playoffs. Because in the playoffs, everything is about matchups and everything is about what are we going to live and die with?”

The 34-year-old shooting guard — Iman Shumpert hasn’t played a game since 2021, but says he’s open to playing again and is not retired — discussed in further detail what he means by that.

“People don’t know it, but there’s a lot of times when the player think he’s getting off and think he’s playing the game of his life, and we’re really just leaving you open because our game plan is to not let this guy over here that really kills us at the end of every game — we’re going to let him be cold all game where he hasn’t shot a ball at all — and you keep scoring,” explained Shumpert.

The Cavaliers have emerged as a playoff team during each of Mitchell’s first two years with the club, and individually, he’s earned back-to-back All-Star berths along with an All-NBA selection at the conclusion of the 2022-23 season. However, the Cavs have failed to advance past the Eastern Conference semifinals with Mitchell leading the way, which is very similar to how his tenure with the Utah Jazz went, as they never advanced past the semifinals with Mitchell and Rudy Gobert as their star duo.

Shumpert explains the strategy from opposing teams on how to limit a Mitchell-led team is by letting him score and icing out the other players.

“But we don’t care, because we’re not losing,” says Iman Shumpert when a team utilizes this strategy on Mitchell in the playoffs. “We’re just going back and forth like, ‘Ya’ll don’t play defense. Our literal game plan is to ice out, make this other player think he got it and then we’re going to trap him at the end of the game.'”

“That’s the playoffs. When Donovan realizes how to play a game within a game — because he’s just playing the purity of the game — he’s not playing a game within a game. He needs to understand that. I don’t want to drift off too hard, but at the end of the game, we shouldn’t be able to funnel you into this over here and I think that right now, he’s got to add something to his game and to keep people from doing that because he’s undersized.”

As a member of the Cavs, Mitchell is the No. 1 option with point guard Darius Garland as the No. 2 scoring option. Mitchell averaged 26.6 points per game while Garland averaged 18.0 points per game during the 2023-24 season.

While the Cavaliers’ type of personnel likely won’t allow Mitchell to play any other way, Shumpert suggests that if the 28-year-old guard were to play with a bigger guard — someone like Luka Doncic of the Dallas Mavericks — it would mean more postseason success for Mitchell.

“He needs to go somewhere with a big point guard,” says Iman Shumpert. “There has to be a big point guard. If he had Luka, now he can deal with the defensive loss on height difference, but he can play the combo spot better than the official two-guard. I need him to back and forth, playing point and two and I need that big point guard to be predominantly the distributor, because Donovan is a quick pull if you give him space, he’s pulling. He doesn’t take disrespect well at all.”

“I think that people run into the mistake of not presenting them with somebody that could fill in the little holes. I’m just gonna play the two. But he doesn’t need to be guarding, he can jump, he can get blocks, he’s gonna do stuff like that. He doesn’t need to be guarding somebody that is gonna run his legs down and throw at him every possession. That’s pretty much every two-guard in the league and they’re gonna go at you every time they touch the ball. I think he has to deal with that a little bit too much. You need a point guard that’s bigger, that can hide that for him and take a little pressure off what me and Kyrie used to do (in Cleveland).”

Mitchell signed a three-year, $150 million contract extension in the offseason following persistent trade rumors. With Mitchell appearing to be locked into Cleveland for the foreseeable future, they likely have a ceiling unless they make a major move to bring in a big guard to take the pressure off Mitchell and cover up for his defensive deficiencies.

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