The Cleveland Cavaliers may not have a superstar, but they have one of the most proficient scoring teams in the game.
He’s what young fans may call an ‘ethical scorer.’
As pointed out by Basketball Forever on X, Donovan Mitchell is one of just five scorers to average at least 20 points per game without free throws.
He averages 20.5 points per game without counting his trips to the charity stripe, trailing only the likes of Luka Doncic, LeBron James, Stephen Curry, and Kevin Durant.
PPG without free throws by an active player:
🔸22.4 — Luka Doncic
🔸21.5 — LeBron James
🔸20.8 — Steph Curry
🔸20.7 — Kevin Durant
🔸20.5 — Donovan MitchellThe only players with 20+
(via StatMuse) pic.twitter.com/9tPfha2Lgb
— Basketball Forever (@bballforever_) August 3, 2025
It goes without saying that any time you’re on a list with those players, you know you’re doing things well.
Mitchell is the team’s leading scorer and offensive leader.
He’s always taken his game up a notch in the playoffs, but he has yet to get past the second round.
That has always been a big knock on him, and he’s usually not that efficient when he’s tightly guarded by physical and pesky defenders.
This season will be crucial to making or breaking his reputation in the league.
The sample size is big enough to tell that he’s an efficient three-level scorer, but he now needs to prove that he can be the leading scorer on a championship-contending team.
The Cavaliers were the best team in the Eastern Conference by a significant margin last season, yet it didn’t do much to help their case in a seven-game series.
They will have to do a lot of heavy lifting to silence their critics this season, and hopefully, Mitchell will be up to that challenge.
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