Cavaliers’ Donovan Mitchell Ineligible To Be Voted As All-NBA Player

Cleveland Cavaliers shooting guard Donovan Mitchell is now ineligible to make one of the three All-NBA teams this season. 

The most games Mitchell can appear in this season are 64. He’s currently out with a left knee injury. 

#Cavs have ruled out Donovan Mitchell tonight.

Mitchell now can play a maximum of 64 games, meaning he's ineligible to be voted as an All-NBA player.

Quite a shame. He's had an incredible year and it won't be recognized appropriately.

— Danny Cunningham (@RealDCunningham) March 11, 2024

Mitchell has a player option worth $37 million for the 2025-26 season. The Louisville product can become an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2025 if he declines that player option. 

Mitchell is averaging 28.0 points, 5.4 rebounds, 6.2 assists, 1.8 steals and 0.5 blocks this season while shooting 47.2% from the field, 37.1% from beyond the arc and 86.1% from the free-throw line. 

Cavaliers head coach JB Bickerstaff told NBA reporters before the Boston Celtics win on March 5 that the organization believes Mitchell will be “back to full strength” after receiving a platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injection to treat a left knee bone bruise.

“You’re always obviously concerned, but we’re confident these next steps will be the steps that are necessary [to get him healthy],” Bickerstaff said, via ESPN. “It was one of those things where he was trying to play through it, but he just was hampered and you could see he couldn’t explode, he couldn’t move in certain directions because of the pain and how it was limited.

“I’m not a doctor, but from everything that I’m hearing, the time, the rest and the process should give him back to full strength.”

A New York native, Mitchell has career averages of 24.9 points, 4.3 rebounds, 4.6 assists, 1.4 steals and 0.3 blocks with the Utah Jazz and Cavaliers. He scored a career-high 71 points last season against the Chicago Bulls. 

“I don’t like to overstep my bounds, but at the end of the third game or three games, they’ll reevaluate him and then we’ll make a decision from there,” Bickerstaff said. “Again, I am hopeful. I do not expect this to be a long break. But we will always do what’s best by our guys to make sure they’re healthy.”

The Cavaliers are 41-23 on the season. They are in third place in the Eastern Conference standings.