Donovan Mitchell Feels He Should Be In Top 5 for NBA MVP But Doubts Voters Include Him

Cleveland Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell believes he should be in the top five of the NBA MVP conversation, but he also feels he may not land there when the voting results are revealed, per Joe Vardon of The Athletic.

"Mitchell’s attitude and willingness to sacrifice his stats for the betterment of this team are part of his MVP case, but he knows the voters (like me, probably) generally tend to consider a player’s statistical impact on winning, compared to teammates, when deciding the league’s MVP," Vardon began.

"He and I talked about it a little postgame. He said he thinks he should be in the top five but has a hunch he won’t be (we’ll see: If you count Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Nikola Jokić, Giannis and Jayson Tatum as four of the top five, perhaps Mitchell gets in there ahead of LeBron James or Anthony Edwards).

"He said, not shockingly, he would like to win a league MVP, but he also said hasn’t won the trophy that really counts — the Larry O’Brien trophy given to the NBA Finals champion in June. So personal awards have to wait."

The latest NBA.com Kia MVP ladder has Mitchell seventh, behind Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Nikola Jokić, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Jayson Tatum, LeBron James and Jalen Brunson.

The latest Basketball-Reference NBA MVP Awards Tracker doesn't list Mitchell in the top 10, but it does list two teammates, Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen, at No. 5 and No. 7, respectively.

Mitchell should certainly get his MVP consideration as the top scorer (24.2 PPG) on the NBA's best team, which is 54-10 with a 14-game winning streak.

As good as Mitchell has been, though, his teammates have been exceptional as well. He's third on the team in VORP (value over replacement player) behind Allen and Mobley and fourth in win shares (behind those two plus Darius Garland), per Basketball-Reference.

On the flip side, you have players whose individual success are invaluable to their team's success, like Gilgeous-Alexander and Jokić, who have gaudy individual stats and are far and away their team's top superstars. At this juncture, it appears those two are in a fight for the MVP.

Ultimately, Mitchell isn't winning the MVP, but he has a far greater honor to chase in the Larry O'Brien Championship Trophy. Cleveland should waltz to the Eastern Conference's No. 1 seed at this point, a big help as the team looks toward its second franchise title and first since 2016.