Shortly after the season-ending loss to the Indiana Pacers, Cleveland Cavaliers executive Koby Altman acknowledged that the team needed to add toughness.
The Cavs won’t have a lot of money to spend on free agents this offseason, and unless they’re finally willing to trade one of their stars, chances are they will have to run it back with virtually the same roster.
That means that they will have to find that grit and toughness from within.
With that in mind, David Campbell of the “Terry’s Talkin'” podcast suggested that the Cavs might need Donovan Mitchell to take a page out of Michael Jordan’s book.
He argued that Mitchell might need to stop being a positive leader and should start getting in people’s faces at practice.
“But I do wonder though, if it’s time for [Donovan Mitchell] to go from being the nurturing kind of big brother … to more of what we were just talking […] about Jordan [in practice],” Campbell said. “You’ve got to get on these guys, and there are not many players on that team who can do that.”
That makes sense, as a team’s best player is usually the one who sets the tone in the locker room.
Then again, that has never been Mitchell’s personality.
As a leader, he’s someone who’s going to uplift his teammates, and as someone who struggles against physicality on the court, he may have to prove that he can handle that before demanding the same from his teammates.
The Cavaliers have all the talent in the world.
They need to add a backup center to the roster, and they should be capable of competing at the highest level.
Unfortunately, unless they act like it, they’re not going to be taken seriously by other teams.
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