Unlike last year, Cleveland Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell will not be a 2026 NBA All-Star starter in Los Angeles. The league announced the starting fives for both the Eastern Conference and Western Conference on Monday afternoon, with the six-timer and two-time starter as a notable omission. Focused on facing the Oklahoma City Thunder at Rocket Arena, Mitchell preferred not to find out the news before the matchup.
“I didn’t know what had happened, but you can assume ’cause no one said anything,” Mitchell said postgame following the Cavs’ blowout loss on Monday. “Typically, they’d say something during the game, so once [I didn’t hear that], I was like, ‘Alright, it is what it is.’ To be honest, I kind of expected that. The guys that were named, their record is better than ours, so naturally, you reward that.”
The East announced three first-time starters, as Tyrese Maxey, Jaylen Brown, and Cade Cunningham joined Jalen Brunson and Giannis Antetokounmpo to represent the conference.
“I want to be a starter for sure,” Mitchell said. “But understand that, at the end of the day, [if] we win games, everybody gets rewarded. We haven’t won games necessarily at the rate we would like to, and that’s what comes first. Everything else comes with that.”
The West welcomes Victor Wembanyama to the first-timers club, alongside veterans in Steph Curry, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Luka Doncic, and Nikola Jokic.
Mitchell started in the All-Star Game in two of the previous three seasons, but will ultimately come off the bench in this year’s game. He’s having an unbelievable campaign individually, averaging 29.0 points, 5.7 assists, 4.8 rebounds, and 1.5 steals in 34 minutes per game. It’s been the most efficient shooting season of his career, knocking down 48.5% of his field goals and 38.4% of his three-point attempts.
And though the 24-20 Cavs haven’t quite been their best in the first half of the 82-game marathon, Mitchell has only uplifted his teammates and stepped up his game when they’ve needed it the most.
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