Mitchell has been one of the Eastern Conference's best players in the first month of the season, averaging 31.4 points and shooting 49.2%, both of which would be career highs. When All-Star guard Darius Garland went down in the first game with an eye injury, Mitchell's move into a more pronounced leadership role was seamless. Perhaps sensitive to the concept he'd had issues with former Utah Jazz teammates, Mitchell came in with a team-first attitude that immediately impressed Cavs players, team sources said.Ĭavs players, coaches and front-office members noticed Mitchell showed no ego from preseason workouts right through the start of the season, and multiple team members said they believed it helped him fit in. When Donovan Mitchell arrived over the summer following a blockbuster trade, he'd done his homework on how the Cavs operate internally. But the connections are present in more tangible ways, too. This all might sound a tad hokey for grown multimillionaires. Bickerstaff receives the Junkyard Dog chain after their big win in LA ‼️ /4fJfWX5eFd- NBA November 7, 2022 Which is when Kevin Love, now in his ninth season with the team, roared forth and revealed the players had flipped the tables and were giving the chain to their coach after an emotional halftime speech had fired up the Cavs' defense. Sunday night after a road win against the Los Angeles Lakers, Bickerstaff was ready to announce the honor and reached into the award's traveling case only to find it empty. It goes to players who dive on the floor, take a vital charge or secure a big rebound. Earning that award has become a big deal in the Cavs' locker room and, therefore, a competition on the floor during games. This also isn't a new idea, but that's much less important than buying into it. It came complete with a purposefully ridiculous oversized golden chain, ripe for news conference wear and social media postings. Midway through last season, Bickerstaff unveiled the junkyard dog award, given to the player who was the scrappiest and hungriest performer in a win. Bickerstaff has sold it to his team, and it's maybe best personified by an honor after victories that he designed to be a unifying force. It's not a new concept, of course, but wanting it and actually selling that culture are very different realities. Uniting around Nick is another bond for this Cavs team, which has slowly and deliberately been building an admirable team-first culture over the past several years that has been core to its 8-2 start. It was present at all of them, even when he wasn't there. 3 in 2021, when they landed young star Evan Mobley. The bowtie he wore at the 2011 lottery, the Cavs believe, was the reason they won the lottery again in 20 and jumped up to draft No. The team has dedicated the 2022-23 season to Nick, and players have been wearing a bowtie decal on their warm-ups, a nod to Nick's trademark neckwear. "He's a fighter," Dan said, which was shown on the team's YouTube series "The Road Back." He has fought them throughout his 26 years, and the battle has been daunting.ĭan, who has been in a wheelchair since suffering a stroke in 2019, told the Cavs players Nick needed three different brain surgeries in the past two months. For Nick, they've always grown in his brain. Nick has neurofibromatosis, a genetic disorder that causes tumors to grow on nerves. 1 overall, the 14-year-old Nick declared, "What's not to like?" When the Cavs won the lottery that night, getting the right to draft Kyrie Irving No. NBA fans might remember Nick from the 2011 draft lottery, when he was the team's on-stage representative and good-luck charm. He spoke about the excitement for the season before turning serious and telling them about his oldest son, Nick Gilbert. Brian Windhorst and a team of ESPN's Insiders sort out life and the news from in and around the NBA world.Ī few minutes before the Cleveland Cavaliers' home opener last month, owner Dan Gilbert addressed the players in the locker room.
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