Undefeated Cavaliers aim to find out if a team of nice guys can win an NBA title

PHILADELPHIA — Thirteen-and-oh is cute and all, but understand what’s important to Donovan Mitchell.

Juan Soto in a New York Mets uniform in 2025.

“All hands on deck,” Mitchell, the boisterous and lifelong fan of the Metropolitans, said Wednesday. His father, Donovan Sr., a longtime Mets executive, is doing his part, as all Mets executives are these days, in helping to recruit the current Yankees slugger to move his work address from the Bronx to Queens.

The collaborative approach is already working in Donovan Jr.’s vocation. Under new coach Kenny Atkinson, the Cleveland Cavaliers have come roaring out of the gate, becoming just the sixth team in NBA history to win its first 13 games of the season. Of the other five teams to equal or better that start, all but one failed to make the finals that season — and the one who didn’t, the 2002-03 Dallas Mavericks, made the Western Conference finals.

Of course, making the playoffs isn’t the Cavs’ issue; going far in them is, or at least has been, in recent seasons. Last spring’s seven-game victory over the Orlando Magic in the first round was the first time Cleveland reached the second round since LeBron James’ final season of his second stint there, in 2018, when the Cavs lost to the Golden State Warriors in the NBA Finals for the third time in four years.

The Cavaliers have leaned into the collective, not just playing faster, but with more movement, more cutting. The Golden State-influence on Atkinson, an assistant there the past three seasons, is obvious. The most most obvious piece, of course, is Evan Mobley channeling Draymond Green’s role in the Warriors’ half-court offense as a facing-the-basket power forward/facilitator/screener.

“Everyone’s been on the same page,” Mobley said at shootaround Wednesday. “I think the best part is everyone’s just really getting their shot to get off. Everyone’s having their own chance to attack and show what they’re capable of.”

He said this softly. Part of the reason was he was a little under the weather. But it’s just who the 23-year-old is. He’s not a yeller. He gets “subtle mad,” someone close to him says.

And therein lies the theory of the Cavaliers’ case as a legit title contender.

It’s not a criticism at all of the core group to say Mobley, Mitchell, Darius Garland and Jarrett Allen are all great players but also really nice guys. Mobley’s especially reticent to blow his own horn. Mitchell apologized after the Cavaliers’ 114-106 win over the depleted Philadelphia 76ers on Wednesday for giving up a sure layup in the final minutes to try and find one more assist that would have given him his first triple-double in eight years.

“Selfish moment,” he said.

Still, there’s not an a-hole in the bunch. But you almost always need an a-hole in your locker room to win a title. Two is pushing it; three is too many. But you need at least one.

For all the talk of the Warriors playing with joy, and they most certainly have during the Stephen Curry era, Green’s sandpaper on your skin, vinegar in your eye, invective in your ear approach has been just as important to Golden State’s time atop the NBA firmament as Curry’s and Klay Thompson’s splashes from deep. Kobe Bryant wore the villain cap with relish during his prime Los Angeles Lakers days, but he also rolled with Ron Harper and Metta Sandiford-Artest. The San Antonio Spurs always had a Bruce Bowen or Stephen Jackson or Danny Ferry around; Dennis Rodman was, of course, Dennis Rodman, whether with the Detroit Pistons or Chicago Bulls. Even James’ best Cavaliers teams had a J.R. Smith or Iman Shumpert to stir the pot.

Just who is the biggest a-hole on these Cavs?

“Oh, Max Strus,” Garland said of the former Miami Heat forward, who came to Cleveland via free agency in 2023. To his credit, Strus was more than happy to take the mantle as he nodded in agreement.

I’m sort of kidding here, but … not really. Winning four playoff series in a row is hard. You’re going up against the best teams, the best players, the best coaches, who all want to win as much as you do. And many of them will not be nice in their pursuit of a ring. They will push and shove and cuss you. They’ll elbow you in the ribs and undercut you trying to get a rebound. They’ll fight you for it. Will these Cavaliers fight — not literally, but figuratively, emotionally — if they play the Celtics again in the playoffs, or the Knicks?

“I think they do it collectively,” said Tristan Thompson, the 13-year vet in his second stint in Cleveland.

“Evan will do it by his play. I think JA does it by getting big-time dunks. Don and DG, they’ll make big plays, but they’ll yell, talk s–t on the court. I think every guy does it in a different way.

“As a combination, at the end of the day, it comes down to Don and DG. They have the ball the most in their hands, so they have to be the most vocal, in terms of being an a—hole.”

But Mobley may be the Cavs’ most complete player. At least, that’s what the Cavaliers think. It’s part of why they brought in Atkinson. (For his part, Atkinson was smart to bring in assistant coach Johnnie Bryant, who is also close with Mitchell, from the Knicks to be a daily, hands-on guy with Mobley.)

Cavaliers GM Koby Altman asked each of the head coaching candidates interviewing to replace J.B. Bickerstaff to detail how they’d unlock Mobley offensively. Atkinson leaned into the Cavs’ five-game loss to Boston, with edits strictly focusing on Mobley with the ball. Allen was injured with a broken rib and out, so Bickerstaff put Mobley at center, giving him more playmaking duties. And Mobley averaged 21.4 points, 9.4 rebounds and 3.2 assists against the Celtics, shooting 63 percent from the floor.

Most importantly, his usage rate went from 20.6 during the regular season to 24.1 against Boston. And to have any chance to get out of the East in the future, Cleveland has to figure out how to compete better against the C’s. More Mobley with the rock is the beginning of the answer. So far this season, Mobley’s usage rate is at 23.8.

“That was what I really focused on preparing for my interview,” Atkinson said. “JA was out (against Boston). They were playing a lot of five-out, with (Mobley) as the trail guy, with real positive results. I saw some real positive things as far as a playmaker. That’s where the push, with him pushing it in transition, with him being that trail in a five-out system, and with the inverted pick-and-roll stuff where we bring smalls into it and have him handle. And he’s still got a ways to go. I think he’s just scratching the surface. You see him handle the ball sometimes, and you’re like, man, this guy is a point guard.”

Much has been made so far of Cleveland’s blistering 120.9 offensive rating, second only to Boston’s 121, and the Cavaliers league-leading 41.2 shooting percentage on 3-pointers. But the Cavs aren’t really shooting more 3s this season. Going into Wednesday’s game, they were averaging 36.9 3s per game. Last season, they averaged 36.8. The difference is their top 3-point shooters are making a whole lot more of them.

Last year, out of their top six 3-point shooters by volume, only reserve guard Sam Merrill was truly dangerous behind the arc, shooting better than 40 percent. So far this season, though, Mitchell’s shooting 40.7 percent on 3s. Garland’s at 44.9 percent. Top reserve Caris LeVert is at 45 percent. And backup Ty Jerome, back this season after playing in just two games last year following ankle surgery, is firing at a preposterous 57.7 percent clip so far from deep. None of that feels sustainable.

Darius Garland and the rest of the Cavs are hot from 3 to start this season. (Ken Blaze / Imagn Images)

Which gets us back to Mobley.

Atkinson has Cleveland playing much, much faster. Last season, the Cavaliers were 24th in the league in pace, at 97.6. This season, they’re up to 10th, at 100.42.

Pace in and of itself does not guarantee better offense. The Washington Wizards led the league in pace last season, and they’re second this season. But getting into early actions more often has help unlock Mobley’s abilities with the ball.

His father, Eric, a longtime coach, trained his younger son to be a guard. He’s been handling the ball since middle school. He did it at USC, where his dad was an assistant. But in his first three years in the NBA, Cleveland played him down low with Allen. The duo is terrific together defensively, but offense was a different story. Each was good in mid-rolls and the occasional lob, but they rarely had the ball in their hands for long stretches.

That’s changed.

“He just tells me, attack the rim or shoot it,” Mobley said of Atkinson. “Whenever I don’t shoot it, that’s the main thing he really gets on me with — just staying in attack mode the entire game. When I’m open, letting it fly.”

Mobley not only studies how Golden State used Green in the high post as a facilitator, allowing the Warriors to play Green and another non-shooter like Kevon Looney together on the floor (and, this season, Trayce Jackson-Davis) but also how Anthony Davis plays facing the basket. Or, how Giannis Antetokounmpo attacks from the wings. He’s wanted to play the way they do.

“I feel like as the player I am, I have a lot of different skill sets that I can bring to the table,” he said. “Some of them aren’t as strong as they need to be yet, but me being out there, being uncomfortable, is going to sharpen them and get them all strong enough, so around playoff time when it’s really needed and we need everyone’s help, all my tools are going to be sharpened and where they need to be.”

The Cavaliers, then, are tied to their young forward, whom they’re pushing not just for the All-Defensive team but also Most Improved Player. They didn’t hesitate for a moment dropping a five-year, $224 million extension on him in July. They do not need him to get on a table and scream at halftime when they’re going through the motions, like they did Wednesday against Philly. They need him to have his fingerprints all over games.

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Is Mobley’s voice where Atkinson wants it?

“Yes!,” Atkinson said, definitively. “And it’s quiet. It’s like, you have to be yourself.”

Atkinson continued: “I don’t know, I don’t think all of a sudden we’re going to get him to be Draymond Green. I like it. I like that he’s being himself. He’ll say the right thing at the right time. But are we ever going to get this boisterous (voice) barking out defensive calls? I’m not sure.

“But, to me, if you’re a competitor, the way he’s a competitor; if you defend like he defends. And then he is … extremely intelligent. Coaches give me that feedback, what he sees on the bench, what he sees in the huddle. It’s pretty amazing how perceptive he is about the game.”

Mobley says he’s growing more comfortable being more vocal.

“Whatever I see on the floor. whatever comes to mind, just speaking up, what I think needs to be said,” he said. “And everyone just listens. I think everyone does a good job of that, and the coaches do a good job of empowering me to keep speaking up, and I’m gonna just try to keep doing that.”

The hope in Cleveland is that Mobley doing more earlier in games will leave Mitchell fresher to be a finisher, as he was Wednesday, when he scored 13 of his 23 points in the fourth quarter. Allen, currently eighth in the league in screen assists, did his usual dirty work under the glass, with 12 rebounds. Mobley only took eight shots but finished a plus-17. The locker room was upbeat and happy. The Cavs’ 11.7 point differential, a gold standard for determining true contenders in a given season, leads the league.

But there will be tests, starting Tuesday in Boston, in an NBA Cup group-stage game. It’s still just November, Mitchell said, over and over. It will not always be this smooth. They insist they’re ready.

“I think the fact that we can have any conversation helps,” Mitchell said. “Typically, when you think of those, you think, it has to be the leader, or it has to be the coach. Whereas (here), it’s like one through 15, we’re having conversations. Fifteenth on the roster can talk to one. Having that relationship, I think, is what makes those conversations easy. That’s what it’s going to take.

“At some point in time, we’re going to be faced with a rough stretch. Are we still able to be this team through those rough stretches? I think those, obviously starting (13-0) is great. But continuing to have those, and being willing to accept those hard conversations, I think that’s what this group is — a selfless group that wants to win at the highest level.”

Required Reading

(Photo of Draymond Green and Evan Mobley: Jason Miller / Getty Images)