It's hard to imagine where the Cleveland Cavaliers would be without Donovan Mitchell's career-best season.
Even though the Cleveland Cavaliers have underachieved overall halfway through the NBA season, Donovan Mitchell is having one of the best seasons of his career. It’s hard to imagine where the team would be if Spida weren’t on the roster.
Mitchell isn’t just carrying the Cavaliers; he’s having one of the best seasons of his career and is on pace to record career highs in multiple impressive categories.
If the season ended on Thursday, Mitchell would finish with scoring 29.7 points per game, which would be a career-high for the 29-year-old.
The most impressive piece of these numbers is that Mitchell hasn’t taken a step back in his usage in Cleveland’s offense, resulting in the more efficient shooting. Spida has been shooting the ball more than in past years and is still on track for his most efficient season to date.
Mitchell is also attempting 10.3 field goals a game, which is the most he ever attempted in a season. With that, he still has a field goal percentage of .492 and a three-point percentage of .387. Both of those numbers would be the best Mitchell has posted since he was drafted in 2017.
Dec 29, 2025; San Antonio, Texas, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell (45) sets up to shoot in the first half against the San Antonio Spurs at Frost Bank Center. Mandatory Credit: Daniel Dunn-Imagn ImagesMitchell’s previous career-best shooting percentage came during his first season in Cleveland, when he logged a .484. His previous best three-point shooting season also came in 2022-23, when Mitchell shot .386 from behind the arc.
In Mitchell’s previous seasons with similar numbers, he finished fifth in the MVP voting in 2025 and sixth in the MVP voting in 2023. It remains to be seen if the Cavaliers' superstar guard will be a finalist, and a lot of that likely depends on where the Wine and Gold finish out the year.
As impressive as these numbers have been, the Cavaliers have needed Mitchell to put up these career-best numbers just for the team to stay in the playoff hunt. Unfortunately, due to injuries and other inconsistencies, Cleveland only has a record of 23-19 halfway through the season, and that’s with Mitchell’s elite stats.
Clearly, Mitchell is in the middle of the best offensive season of his career, but as of right now, the Cavs don’t have much to show for it. Hopefully, during the final stretch of the season, Cleveland can figure it out while Mitchell continues to have one of the best years of his career.