Donovan Mitchell could hit free agency as soon as 2025, but Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert sounds confident about him sticking around.
"We've been talking to him, sure, for the last couple of years about extending this contract," Gilbert said in an interview with the Associated Press' Tom Withers on Thursday. "We think he will extend. I think if you listen to him talk, he loves the city.
"He loves the situation in Cleveland because our players are very young and we're just kind of putting the core together that he's clearly the biggest part of."
Mitchell, 27, is eligible to sign a three-year extension worth about $149 million right now, but has publicly said he will not do that. He has left the door open, however, to sign an extension this coming summer, at which point he'll be eligible to add four years and approximately $200 million to his deal. As CBS Sports' Sam Quinn noted in October, though, if Mitchell wants to maximize his next contract, he could re-sign with Cleveland in 2025 on a five-year deal worth around $260 million.
In the interview, which took place in Gilbert's hometown of Detroit and was arranged because the city is hosting this year's NFL Draft, Gilbert spoke positively about the Cavaliers' season and coach J.B. Bickerstaff. Despite dealing with injuries to core players virtually all along, Cleveland is 44-29 and fourth in the East, one game behind the third-place New York Knicks in the loss column. It went 23-5 from mid-December until All-Star weekend, at which point its offensive surge was one of the happiest stories in the NBA, but has won just 8 of its 20 games since the break, ranking 21st on offense (and 18th on defense) in that span. Mitchell has missed 15 of those 20 games, though, because of a bone bruise in his knee followed by a broken nose that required surgery, and, according to The Athletic's Shams Charania, he could be back in the lineup as soon as Friday against the Philadelphia 76ers.
"We really compete with pretty much anybody in the East," Gilbert said. "Boston has taken a huge lead, best team in the league. But if you look at the second, third, fourth seed and look at us, we can compete with anybody and we've proven that during the season."
Cleveland has shown promising signs this season, and Mitchell has indeed spoken positively about what the franchise is building. Even when the Cavs were on a high in February, though, Mitchell maintained that they needed to prove that their formula could work in the playoffs. Last season, Mitchell's first in Cleveland, the team finished 51-31 and had home-court advantage in its first-round series against New York but was eliminated in five games. How it fares this time around won't necessarily dictate Mitchell's future, but winning a round surely wouldn't hurt its chances of getting an extension done.
Is it notable that Gilbert is projecting optimism? Sure, but it doesn't mean all that much. Fourteen years ago, at the University of Akron, Gilbert sat onstage with LeBron James for the superstar's Most Valuable Player award ceremony and said, "I'm sure we'll be here next year with MV3."
