CLEVELAND, Ohio — In this episode of the Wine and Gold Talk podcast, Ethan Sands, Chris Fedor and Jimmy Watkins discuss what they learned from Cavs Media Day on Monday before heading to IMG Academy in Florida.
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‘It’s time to go get it’: Donovan Mitchell speaks with urgency at Cavs Media Day
Takeaways:
1. Players Acknowledge a Lack of Mental Toughness
A significant takeaway from media day was the players’ candidness about their shortcomings in the playoff series against the Indiana Pacers. Unlike organizations that might offer clichés, key players like Donovan Mitchell and De’Andre Hunter openly used the term “mental toughness” to describe what the team lacked. The podcast hosts viewed this honesty as a sign of maturity and a crucial first step toward addressing the playoff flameouts that have defined their recent seasons. While admitting the problem doesn’t guarantee a solution, this public accountability was seen as a positive and necessary development for a team trying to take the next step.
2. Translating Accountability into Action Remains the Biggest Hurdle
While the players’ willingness to accept labels like “soft” and “fragile” was praised, the question of how they will fix these issues remains largely unanswered. The hosts noted that acknowledging a problem is something the team has done for years, but the path to a solution is more complex. When asked for specifics, players often pointed to “experience” as the primary teacher. This raised concerns about whether the team has a concrete plan beyond simply hoping that past failures will naturally lead to future growth, especially when facing new and different challenges in the upcoming season.
3. Offseason Conditioning Was a Direct Response to the Pacers
The team’s playoff exit against the fast-paced Indiana Pacers directly influenced their offseason strategy, particularly regarding conditioning. Several players, including Donovan Mitchell, Craig Porter Jr., and Jaylon Tyson, emphasized their goal of entering the season in the best shape of their lives to avoid being “run off the court” again. The hosts pointed out a potential flaw in this thinking: while preparing for Indiana’s unique style is beneficial, the next playoff opponent, such as the New York Knicks or Orlando Magic, will present an entirely different kind of challenge. The fear is that the team might be fixing the last problem instead of preparing for the next one.
4. Donovan Mitchell’s Leadership Dilemma: ‘Superman’ vs. Empowerer
Donovan Mitchell is facing a significant leadership challenge: balancing his instinct to take over games with the team’s need for him to step back and empower others, particularly Evan Mobley. Mitchell acknowledged this dilemma, but the hosts expressed skepticism about his ability to relinquish control, especially when losing. His competitive nature drives him to do whatever it takes to win, which could undermine the long-term goal of developing his teammates. This internal conflict will be a central storyline, as the team’s ultimate success may depend on Mitchell learning to trust others even in high-pressure moments.
5. A More Assertive Evan Mobley Is Emerging
Evan Mobley displayed a notable change in his demeanor, expressing a newfound assertiveness about his role. He stated that if the ball doesn’t find him, he needs to “go get it” and is prepared to take the initiative by grabbing rebounds and running the fast break himself. This is a significant shift from his previously more reserved personality. The hosts interpreted this as Mobley accepting the pressure and expectations placed upon him, signaling his readiness to transition from a high-potential player to a true franchise cornerstone who actively demands the ball and influences the game.
6. Mitchell’s Elite Conditioning Is Driven by Teammate Injuries
Donovan Mitchell confirmed that his intense offseason regimen, which has him in “mid-season form” before training camp even begins, was a direct reaction to the early-season injuries of Darius Garland and Max Strus. He understands he will have to carry a heavier offensive load from the start. While this preparedness is a positive trait, it also reinforces the concern that he will revert to a “Superman” role out of necessity. This could delay the intended goal of empowering Evan Mobley and diversifying the offense, as Mitchell will be forced to dominate the ball to keep the team competitive.
7. The ‘LeBron Method’ Highlights a Different Path to a Championship
The podcast drew a comparison between Donovan Mitchell’s leadership style and that of LeBron James. James was known for creating “uncomfortable situations” during the regular season to test his teammates, even if it meant losing games, famously letting Kyrie Irving “play by himself” to teach him a lesson. In contrast, Mitchell’s instinct is to strive for perfection and avoid losing streaks at all costs. The discussion highlighted that Mitchell may need to embrace some short-term pain — such as letting Evan Mobley struggle through possessions — for the long-term benefit of the team, a counterintuitive approach for a “maniacal competitor” like him.
8. Early Season Injuries Could Be a ‘Blessing in Disguise’ for Mobley
The injuries to Darius Garland and Max Strus, while unfortunate, may provide a “blessing in disguise” by creating a clear runway for Evan Mobley’s development. Their absence necessitates a larger offensive role for Mobley, particularly in lineups where Donovan Mitchell is on the bench. The hosts suggested the Cavs should be intentional about this, allowing Mobley to run the offense and showcase his expanded skill set. This period could serve as a proving ground, making it “undeniable” that he deserves a primary role even when the team returns to full strength.
9. Evan Mobley Is Mentally Ready for Stardom
According to the hosts, Evan Mobley’s evolution is not just physical but mental. After winning Defensive Player of the Year and making his first All-Star and All-NBA teams, he now carries himself with the quiet confidence of a star. He appears more comfortable in the spotlight and ready to embrace the pressure that comes with being the face of the franchise. This mental shift is seen as just as important as his on-court skills, suggesting he is finally prepared to become what many have projected him to be: a superstar in “big, bold, capital letters.”
10. Intentional Development Must Be a Priority, Even at the Cost of Wins
A key theme was the need for Coach Kenny Atkinson and the team’s leadership to prioritize long-term development over short-term wins. This means intentionally creating plays and possessions for Evan Mobley to handle the ball and create, even if it’s not the most efficient option on a given night. The challenge will be managing Donovan Mitchell’s instinct to take over when things go wrong. The early part of the season will be a “fascinating study in leadership,” testing whether the organization can stick to its developmental plan even when faced with adversity.
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Transcript
NOTE: This transcript was generated by artificial intelligence and could contain misspellings and errors.
Ethan Sands: What up, Cavs Nation? I’m your host, Ethan Sands, and I’m back with another episode of the Wine and Gold Talk podcast. Joining me today, Chris Fedor, cleveland.com Cavs beat reporter, and Jimmy Watkins, cleveland.com’s columnist. And we are here to talk to you guys about Cavs media day. Training camp is one day away, but before the Cavs traveled to IMG Academy in Florida, they had media day at Rocket arena, where they had multiple different opportunities to talk to reporters, insiders, you name it. They were giving us the inside scoop on what they were doing this summer, how it went, and what they learned about themselves, about this team coming into the 2025, 2026 season. Chris, what is something that you took away from today’s media day that you didn’t already know coming into media day?
Chris Fedor: I guess I didn’t know how forthright players would be about the shortcomings in the series against the Indiana Pacers. But. But I think that speaks to their maturity, and I think that speaks to, um, their willingness to look in the mirror, identify what went wrong, and have an honest conversation amongst themselves and with other members of the organization about how to change it. And I think that’s the first step of remedying it. Now, it remains to be seen whether or not the Cavs are going to take all the lessons that they’ve learned over the last couple of years with their playoff flameouts, and they’re actually going to get them to translate to playoff success. But it feels like they’re approaching it the right way, and it feels like they’re approaching it head on. And oftentimes you don’t have players being this fourth, right? And I think it was really, really important for them to speak about the lack of mental toughness. And look, we’ve been talking on this podcast, guys, for the last five to six months about what went wrong in the playoffs and were they ready to compete for a championship. And they might have thought that they were ready when they won 64 games in the regular season, but were they ready for everything that playoff basketball entailed? And you got the sense in listening to them talk today to a man, that they weren’t ready for it. They were not mentally tough enough that the playoffs demanded something that they couldn’t possibly give. Donovan Mitchell used that term. DeAndre Hunter used that term. And it’s tough, right? Because when you start throwing out these phrases, sometimes people are like, ooh, that’s a nasty label. Oh, my God, did you really say that about that team? Oh, they’re not going to like that. But this is where the whole soft, fragile. That’s where that reputation comes from. And if they’re willing to admit it and address it and make the kind of changes that are required, that is a huge step. Again, I don’t know if it’s going to lead to success. I don’t know if it’s going to lead to a championship. But the level of honesty and accountability that they showed today and they have shown basically throughout the course of this summer and the hunger that they have coming into this season, I thought that was really, really important and I thought that was really interesting to get into their mind to that kind of love.
Ethan Sands: What about you, Jimmy?
Jimmy Watkins: Cavs went 10 on media day. Yeah. You love seeing that. I. I do. In all seriousness, though, I do think that Chris is making a valid point here because there’s, there’s. There are teams who would feel this way internally and not share it. Because I think. I think when you share it, you kind of. Do you embrace the, the public pressure that comes. Like when Jared Allen told us a couple years ago the lights were too bright next, that was honest and that was, I would say, accountable. But you’re inviting more, you’re inviting more critical eyes onto your team when you say those things. There’s a reason why the company line and a lot of professional sports organizations ignore the noise. And, you know, they, a lot of teams try not to give an inch in these settings because they don’t trust us, the media, to not take a mile. I understand that. I understand that. But I think if you look at it from a. A nuanced perspective, I think it’s. The Cavs are to the point where they need to confront these truths. And I think if you’re going to do something like this, make a wholesale change about the way you approach something as we’re talking about your approach when, when times are down, I think you have to do it all the time, even if that means doing it in front of a microphone when it’s uncomfortable to do so. That’s clearly. I think the players scored more points here than Kenny and Kobe did last week. They sort of danced around and pushed back on some of these labels. The players embraced them. I like that. I like that. The question still persists, though, about how do you do it? It’s great to acknowledge that you have a problem that’s step one. And frankly, we’ve been taking step one here for about three years. The question of how do you solve it is more complicated, and the Answers when they got those questions today were less clear. Right. It’s a lot of. Well, experience is the best teacher. That’s kind of the motif that comes out of this. That’s true. Experience can teach you a lot. It’s also only one teacher, and it’s a difficult lesson to apply. So we’re going to spend the next six next six months here trying to sort through what, okay, you, you know, you have a problem, what are you actually doing to fix it? And the. The other thing I was thinking when they kept saying this guy, I think they’re right. Like the. The Pacers presented a very unique brand of. Of mental strain on them. The Pacers are also now gone. And while that can present an opportunity for the Cavs, there’s also gonna be something else, someone else, a different kind of challenge presented to them. So everything that they’re doing, like, I like hearing that they’re in a direct response to the Pacer series. More conditioning, different types of conditioning that the Cavs are doing to try to prepare themselves for a playoff series that might take a lot out of them. Right. That might ask them to go the full. I like hearing Thomas. I like the idea of Thomas, Bryant maybe being able to share some of the lessons from that Pacers run with this Cavs team. But the other, like the Knicks challenge is a different challenge than the Pacers challenge. The Orlando Magic, the challenge that they might present is a different challenge than the Pacers might present. So it’s like a little bit of. Of round, square peg, round hole here where you’re, You’re. I think you have the right attitude and you’re doing the right. The things that you know best to do to try to correct these flaws, but we don’t. What else might be around the corner.
Ethan Sands: I think that’s all great points, and I think you got into something that all of the players kind of touched on in a little bit when they talked about the Pacer series and also not being ready for what that entailed. But one of those major key features was conditioning and being able to keep up and down the floor with the Indiana Pacers. And obviously, as we know, we’ve mentioned, throughout the entire summer, the Pacers played to a different pace than any other team, arguably in NBA history. So that’s different than what they needed to do coming into the off season to feel prepared to get where their bodies needed to be for this next season. Obviously, Donovan Mitchell and is in that realm as well, talking about having his body ready to go, because there’s an understanding of what he’ll have to overcome without Max Drews and Darius Garland on the floor. Craig Porter Jr. Jaylon Tyson talked about wanting to be in the best shape they’ve ever been in their NBA lives coming into this next season, so they’re not getting run off the court so they can help out. But more so to the point of the Donovan Mitchell conversation, him saying that he didn’t want to be Superman, but also understanding his role. What did you take away from that, Chris? And obviously going back to what Colby Altman said a week ago, that he’s already in mid season form, I think.
Chris Fedor: Donovan has a challenge and we’ve talked about this on the podcast as well. And I think Donovan’s challenges, he is the face of the franchise. Success and failure gets laid at his feet. But for this team to potentially take the next step and go where they want to go and win a championship, it’s him probably having to step back a little bit. And that’s hard because if things go wrong, even though he’s probably going to have to do less, he’s still going to take the brunt of that. So it’s one thing to sit here and say, you know, I want to take a step back. I want to empower my teammates. I want to be this for Darius Garland, I want to be this for Evan Mobley, I want to be this for all these different guys and I want to give them more of a freedom to be successful and allow us as, as a team to evolve. It’s one thing to say it, but, but he has to believe that that’s best for the Cavs, and he has to believe that that’s best for him. And he has to believe that the other guys that he’s trying to empower are ready to win at the level that Donovan believes he is ready to win it. That’s his challenge. And I don’t know what the right answer is. And even Donovan kind of touched on it a little bit today, a media day, and he said, look, if everybody had the blueprint for how to do that, there would be a blueprint out there. But, but everybody is required to try and figure it out on their own. And it’s based on what situation are you in, how ready are your teammates for something like that. But, but I do think it’s going to be fascinating to see just the approach that Donovan is willing to take early on in the season when there is no Darius, when there is no Max, and whether or not or how much, how much that continues to evolve as the season goes on and then getting into the playoffs.
Jimmy Watkins: I’m both very excited and a little worried about watching Donovan Mitchell over the first call it month to 60 days of this season. He just. Because he kind of. Today he confirmed what we were, we were hinting at last week when Kobe said he’s a mid season form and I’m already, we’re already trying to figure out how to scale him back. He said directly, you know, this, this.
Chris Fedor: New.
Jimmy Watkins: Version of conditioned conditioning that he is walking in with, you know, classic best shape of your life storyline for media day. Right?
Chris Fedor: Yeah.
Jimmy Watkins: Was in direct response to Darius’s injury and Max’s injury.
Chris Fedor: Yeah.
Jimmy Watkins: And it’s really hard to read that any other way as he knows he has to do more.
Chris Fedor: I’ve got it.
Jimmy Watkins: And to a certain extent, true, you do. You need to. I mean, Donovan’s leadership, whether that means scoring 40 points or not, is never going to be more important than it will be over the first, you know, 12, 15 games of this season. Just steering. There’s gonna be a lot of young guys playing, a lot of guys stepping up a role and he’s obviously always going to be the steadying force here. But to Chris’s point, like, I also like, in the spirit of accountability, I liked Evan Mobley saying today, you know, when the ball doesn’t find me in the fourth quarter, I need to go get it. I need to find ways to do that. I like that. And. But we all know, as we’ve talked about over the summer, that Donovan’s got to give it to him. Bobbin’s got to relinquish control. I’m at the point now, I think the Cavs need to lose some regular season games trying to do stuff. If they don’t, sweet. Obviously you’d rather learn by winning, but like, let Evan Mobley. I’m going to go over like, maybe this is too far, but I’d rather go into total Donovan Mitchell spirit. This is exactly what he said today. I’d rather ramp it all the way up and have to adjust down the other way.
Chris Fedor: Right.
Jimmy Watkins: So I’m. Let Evan Mobley do bag work. Let him dribble a lot. Physically dribble. There’s a lot of talk talking today about Evan Mobley physically dribbling the basketball. Not just like last year. Evan Wobley took the ball up sometimes and then would immediately pivot it to a dribble handoff. No, no, no, no, no. You run this possession. You run this possession or we’re going to throw you the ball. And we’re not going to give you a bunch of help. We’re not going to run a bunch of fancy stuff. Just go. Just go. Is that the best process on a per possession basis? No, it isn’t. Is it really, really, really good and important for Evan Mobley’s personal development? Yes, it is. And I think that’s where the beginning of the season should tilt. But is Donovan. Don Mitchell’s a maniacal competitor. All the reasons you love Donovan Mitchell.
Chris Fedor: Yeah.
Jimmy Watkins: Maniacal competitor. Incredible, incredible sense. Kenny’s praise, his sense of. Sense of when to take over a moment. Donovan. And I agree with that. I think he has a great sense of that. He has to ignore those instincts a little bit. It’s going to be like it’s all counterintuitive, but I think that’s all really important for what the Cavs are trying to do. Big picture.
Chris Fedor: So Donovan said something today about it doesn’t matter where we’re seated. It doesn’t matter where we’re slated, if we’re first or we’re eighth. And I wish I believed that. I don’t believe that. I don’t believe that coming from Donovan. Now, LeBron used to say those things, and he meant it because his actions during the regular season showed you that he meant it like he was willing to do those. He was willing to create drama, he was willing to create chaos. And even if it meant losing streaks and even if it meant difficult conversations, it was better for them in the end because he wanted them to get used to being uncomfortable in uncomfortable situations. And I don’t know that that Donovan, and I don’t think he has to go to drastic lengths, but I just don’t know that Donovan’s wired that same kind of way. I think the losing would catch up to. If you remember a couple years ago, the Cavs were in the middle of a bad stretch. Like, Donovan’s first instinct was, I need to play 45 minutes. Even though he was playing on a bad knee at the time, Donovan didn’t want to sit. Donovan didn’t want to miss games. Now, that was a different situation, obviously, because the Cavs were fighting for seating and they were fighting for playoff positioning and stuff like that. But. But this organization, it feels like, is in a different, different place than that a couple of years ago. And I think Donovan needs to recognize that it really doesn’t matter what seed they are. I guess it does from a home court advantage perspective. But. But if it benefits them in. In the long term to have some short term pain or some struggle throughout the course of the journey that can be healthy and that can be beneficial to them. Like another example. And again, I don’t think Donovan has to go drastic here, but another example. The first year that LeBron James and Kyrie are together, Kyrie had bad habits. He knew nothing about winning basketball. He could put up big numbers. He was brilliant offensively. He had a Rookie of the Year. He was living up to the reputation of being the number one overall pick, but he had bad habits, and he didn’t know how to be a winning basketball player. So the Cavs are in the middle of a road trip, and LeBron recognizes it, and he’s thinking to himself, how am I going to get this dude to understand his way is not going to lead to us winning a championship? What do I have to do for him to realize it? So they play a game. LeBron gives the ball to Kyrie, and for the entire game, basically, LeBron just goes stand in the corner. All right, dude, you want to play by yourself. You want to dribble out there, you want to go isolation, you want to do the things that show up on YouTube and that become Internet sensations and stuff. Like, you’re capable of that. I know you’re capable of that. I’ve seen you do that. The Uncle Drew type stuff. You want to do all that. All right, do all that against the other team. I’m just going to go stand over here in the corner and you see how successful that is for you, and you see how successful that is for this basketball team. And that was an eye opener for Kyrie. That was an eye opener for the Cavs, and that was a big, seminal moment for the Cavs during those championship years with LeBron. And again, I don’t think Donovan has to go that drastic, but. But I do think there has to be some of the. I’m taking a step back. If that means we lose a game here in October or November, then we lose a game here in October or November. Like, if that means I don’t go Superman and try to play savior in the fourth quarter when we’re down by 17, and it has to be a different kind of formula, then so be it, because that might benefit us in the long run. And again, I think it’s just going to be fascinating to see the approach that Donovan takes. He started to take it last year. He did, because he saw the brilliance in Evan Mobley. But when things got difficult and Evan was banged up and Darius wasn’t there, and all the things were starting to go haywire for the Cavs in that series against Indiana. His natural inclination was, I’m going to.
Jimmy Watkins: Take 30 shots real quick. I’m so. I love this framing as LeBron is of LeBron as evil genius. I. I might have some questions about his methodology.
Chris Fedor: Sure.
Jimmy Watkins: About what was happening. Right, right. But the results, unquote, the guy just won the east every single year. And, and some, maybe some of these, the adversity wasn’t manufactured. At times, LeBron had real doubts about what was happening around him. But in the end, directly or indirectly, he did shape those teams into the kind of warriors that they needed to be in the playoffs. And for Donovan, I’m thinking now about one of the quotes he gave. It goes back to this idea of, you know what, you know what your problem is, but how do you solve it? We were asking him in exit interviews. Okay. One of the questions was, can you actually create the adversity and, and show the mental toughness that you need in the playoff during the regular season? And what Donovan said in part was, well, you just, you can’t have any slip ups. Like, look at what Boston does. They never lose two or three in a row. I mean, that’s just not true. Boston completely took their foot off the gas in like December last year and then flipped a switch. But regardless, I Also, this LeBron method that we’re examining right now, that’s not the way they did it either. So.
Chris Fedor: Right.
Jimmy Watkins: Just think like there, it seems like Don, his natural interesting is like, well, what if. If we strive to be as perfect as we possibly can be even if we don’t get there? And this is like a very common athlete mentality and a good, by the way, a good mentality for most people to have. You’ll find even if you don’t get there, you’ll get high on the rung and we’ll see if that’s good enough to get to NBA championship. What happens, though, if you’re, if that can. If you’re in a certain situation and that’s what you’re. You want to be perfect all the time, and it’s not going perfect. You start pressing and you revert to bad habits. And I think that this is. This is a challenge for leadership. In the locker room with Kenny, where to. Where to give rope, where to take rope. This is going to be a fascinating study in leadership from that perspective, because I think Kenny needs to take some rope. I think he needs to insert himself a little bit more and say, these are the things we’re trying to get done. Evan Mobley development, here’s what we need to do. Whereas last year was like, you guys run the offense. You know the concepts, but you guys run the offense. Now we have, like, specific checkpoints. We’re trying to hit, so to speak. Donovan Mitchell used, is trying to give rope, but his natural inclination is to take rope. His natural inclination is like, oh, we’re playing tug of war. We’re starting this. I’m. I’m taking the front of this and I’m pulling. I’m pulling as hard as I can. Sometimes I’m pulling so hard that I literally pull a muscle, and that’s that. I just think that he’s. He’s so close to the right mentality. Like, what if. Here’s a question for an alternate Donovan Mitchell approach. You’re in great shape. I love that you’re in great shape. I love that you’re in midseason form already. What if you did that and took the step back that we’re talking about? Not only then are you empowering your teammates. Think of what you could look like in the playoffs. And I just don’t. You’re battling so many of his natural, really good urges to do that. And I think that’s fascinating.
Ethan Sands: And to your point, Jimmy, about Kenny Atkinson needing to take back some rope, I liked what Evan Mobley had been saying, and to your point earlier, like, it’s going to be on him. He wasn’t putting the pressure on Kenny. He wasn’t putting the pressure on Donovan to step back. He was putting the pressure on himself to start taking initiative, being more assertive, being more aggressive, saying that he needed the ball. Right. Or simply grabbing a rebound and running the fast break himself. Right. And I think that is already a small step up.
Jimmy Watkins: Right?
Ethan Sands: And obviously Evan Mobley is still this soft, smoking dude, but today it didn’t feel like he was mincing words. It felt like he knew coming in that he had to not necessarily speak up, but they was on his mind. And Evan Mobley doing that is already a change in what we’ve seen in the previous four seasons from Evan Mobley and understanding that coming into this year, Donovan Mitchell also said something like, it’s time. We just got to go get it done. It is time. And necessarily, he was talking to the media and about a championship and all these things, but he also could have been alluded to. I know you guys have been talking about Evan Mobley the last couple of years. He made this jump, Defensive player of the year, all NBA, second team all star for the first time, all these things. But this is really going to be the season where you see Evan Mobley become Evan Mobley. And I don’t know if we’re going to hear the same line from Donovan as much this year when he always said last season, like, this is as bad as Evan Mobley is going to get. This is the bottom floor. This is where he can rise up from this season. I think Gautama is going to be like, I tried to warn you, I tried to tell you this is him. This is what we have been expecting, what we’ve been waiting on, and now it is time. And I think those conversations kind of went hand in hand, even though they weren’t talking to each other, near each other, or around each other at the same time. It was just funny to me how they kind of coincided and what they were saying all went together.
Chris Fedor: I can’t remember if I wrote this or if I said it on this podcast, guys, but Evan Mobley is different. And it doesn’t matter if you look at him and you notice differences, because that’s not what I’m talking about. From a mental standpoint, he is different. And I noticed this in Las Vegas at summer league. He just carried himself a different kind of way. He spoke with a different kind of demeanor to it. And look, he’s California chill, he’s laid back, he’s reserved, he’s mild mannered and all those things. But you can see the evolution of Evan Mobley into this all star, into this all NBA player, into the defensive player of the year. And he carries himself a different kind of way. And I don’t want to say that he has a different mentality because I think he’s always wanted to be great and he’s done the things behind the scenes to be great, but it just seems like he’s more comfortable in that spotlight. He’s more comfortable with all the stuff that come with being a star. Now it’s got to translate to the court. Now it’s got to be an all the time thing when it comes to production and when it comes to impact and when it comes to all those different things. But Kenny Atkinson talked about it throughout the course of last year and Donovan Mitchell was talking about it even though they didn’t come out and set it in big, bold viral quotes they were hinting at. Evan Mobley is learning how to be a star and everything that it takes to be a star. And some guys learn it right away and they can handle it right away. And other guys, it might take them a little bit longer to get comfortable with all those different things. And I think you started to kind of see the shift with Evan around All Stars when he was a little bit more vocal about, hey, like, yeah, you’re talking about Wemby, but why can’t I be the future of the NBA here? Why can’t I be an MVP candidate in the next five years? And then when he won defensive player of the year, his value was reaffirmed, his place in the NBA as an elite defender was reaffirmed. And then he makes his first all star team, then he makes this first all NBA team. And all that kind of stuff is like, yeah, Donovan’s here. Yeah, we have Darius. But it’s me. Like everybody has been telling me since I was drafted that I’m the one, that I’m the franchise face, that I’m the guy, that with me the banner is going to come. And even though people were saying that over and over and over to Evan Mobley, I think he needed, I think he needed time to process. Okay, what does that really mean? And what do I have to be both on the court and off the court to become that kind of guy? And even listening to him talk today, going through the transcript, hearing the sound in his voice, he just wasn’t timid.
Jimmy Watkins: He.
Chris Fedor: He just wasn’t somebody who was going to be comfortable being in the background like this dude. And I know I sound probably like Dr. Phil here with the psychology of basketball and stuff like that, guys, but, but really, like everything about Evan Mobley, whether it was my conversation with him in Vegas at summer league or my conversation with him at Darius’s celebrity softball game, or the way that, you know, he has turned into a two way force in the NBA. Like everything about Evan Mobley speaks to. He is ready to be a star. A star in big, bold, capital letters. And he’s ready to embrace and accept everything that comes with that. And I think that’s a really, really important thing.
Jimmy Watkins: I think it takes a trained ear to hear this kind of stuff because Evan is still soft spoken and still has this, has this laid back vibe about him. But there’s a. Just having done all, having accomplished all the things that he accomplished last year, like there’s just a quiet confidence that comes with that. There’s a, there’s a proof of concept now. And now building on it, the next step is arguably the hardest. Like going from star to superstar or superstar to super duper star. But this is where I actually, I really think the, the Darius and Max Drew’s injuries, while less than ideal, obviously can become sort of a blessing in disguise because now there’s a legit Runway. Like, and then again, another thing I’d like to see the Cavs be intentional about this year. I want Evil Moby on the court when Donovan’s not, and I want everything running through him when that’s the case, I want just give him a Runway to showcase everything he can do. Like, so to the point where you, you can use that as a proving ground to Donovan. Like, hey, this guy’s ready. And again, it’s not always going to be perfect, but he’s. We’ve already. I mean, the highlights that, that are. When he goes coast to coast, you know, he’ll block a shot off the backboard and then go throw it down left handed. Like, that’s going to open your eyes a little bit. All the work that he’s putting in, ball handling, he crosses over one of these big dudes, that’s going to open your eyes a little bit, right? Him shooting off the dribble, looking smooth, doing that, that’s going to open your eyes a little bit. And then when Darius and Max get back, I think the idea would be it’s undeniable by that point. Like, again, Darius and Max have always, like Donovan, been intentional about saying, oh, he’s. Darius says he’s our best player. Max says he’s the, the. The ceiling on that guy. It’s higher than all this. But I think along with Donovan, there’s still. Everybody’s like, okay, but we need to see it to know that you’re truly ready. And now there’s nothing else left to do except let him show it. And I think he’s going to show it. He’s going to, at the very least, see. Show us some really promising signs of it. To the point where even when everyone’s back, you kind of have to rethink about how this thing is oriented.
Ethan Sands: Yeah. And I think that’s well said by the two of you. Obviously, we have to wait and see how training camp goes, how preseason goes, but I’m definitely interested. Jimmy, to your point of Donovan Mitchell not being on the court and Evan Bowley being on the court, Obviously we know that there will be a game in preseason where Donovan Mitchell doesn’t play well. In that case, how will Evan Mobley be utilized? What will it look like? Who will be running?
Chris Fedor: Might be the same game that Evan Mobley doesn’t play and the other main guys stay at play.
Ethan Sands: Well, but wouldn’t it be kind of interesting to see what it would look like.
Jimmy Watkins: Not the preseason, not the preseason.
Ethan Sands: Maybe not, but we’ll see what happens. But with all that being said, that’ll wrap up today’s episode of the One and Gold Top podcast. But remember to become a Cavs insider and interact with Chris, me and Jimmy by subscribing to Subtext. Sign up for a 14 day free trial or visit cleveland.comcavs and click on the blue bar at the top of the page. If you don’t like it, that’s fine. All you have to do is text the word stop. It’s easy, but we can tell you that the people who sign up stick around because this is the best way to get inside of coverage on the Cavs from me, Chris and Jimmy. This isn’t just our podcast, it’s your podcast and the only way to have your voice heard is through Subtext. Y’ all be safe. We out.