INDEPENDENCE, Ohio — The Cleveland Cavaliers are gearing up to take on the Orlando Magic in the opening round of the NBA playoffs, and while there is plenty of excitement from the team to be in the postseason, for the Cavs star guard, this is what he expects from Cleveland every year.
Donovan Mitchell was fully active in Wednesday's shootaround after missing numerous regular season games, especially down the stretch as he dealt with knee soreness. Head coach J.B. Bickerstaff was happy with what he saw of Mitchell Wednesday.
"I mean, he did a great job today," Bickerstaff "We did some live stuff and he participated in all of it. He was explosive. He looked like himself."
Mitchell confirmed he's feeling good and ready for playoff action.
"I'm 100%. I'm good. I'm ready to go," Mitchell said.
Having Mitchell trending upwards entering the series with the Magic is crucial, with health a top priority for the team.
"I think the most important thing for us and our thought process going in is we want to try to be as healthy as we possibly could to give this group as fair a chance as possible," Bickerstaff said. "We've been through so much this season with the ins and outs and injuries and those types of things and still found ourselves in a great position. So what we wanted to do, and we talked about it as an organization, is putting our guys in the best position to be healthy, be full and then just see exactly what this team is made of."
While health is top of mind for the Cavs, so are the shared playoff experiences the players hold. The team is sharing those experiences in this week of prep leading into the series with the Magic in order to be as ready as possible.
For Max Strus, who has his share of playoff experience with the Miami Heat, imparting that on the team is something he hopes he can do.
"I hope my experience and my knowledge can help us make a long playoff. I've been through a lot. I've seen a lot and experienced a lot," Strus said. He also said that it's helpful that some of the younger guys like Evan Mobley and Darius Garland got to this point last season is helpful in that, because "any playoff experience is experience. So I'm glad they got that chance last year, but we're looking to make it a little bit of a different situation this season."
In order to do that, the Cavs will stay focused on the task at hand: setting the tone in Game 1.
For this team, making the playoffs is certainly an exciting accomplishment—but after getting here last year and making additions to the roster, this is where the bar has been set.
"Being here is the bare minimum for this group. This is who we are at the lowest. I think we all expect that. I think we don't get guys like Max Strus and George Niang to sign in free agency, Tristan Thompson, Marcus Morris, if they don't believe that we can do something. I think we all believe in ourselves," Mitchell said. "For us, this is where we expect to be."
