The story Merrill tells is about an in-joke, not a crisis.
For most of a season, as outside speculation about Donovan Mitchell’s future dominated the Cleveland news cycle, Merrill would needle his All-Star teammate about it. Mitchell’s answer was always some version of the same four words.
“Is it not obvious?” Mitchell would reply, according to Merrill’s appearance on a Utah radio show picked up by HoopsHype on October 1.
Merrill went further in the same interview.
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“Donovan’s always been 100% committed here. I remember when he signed his last extension, when everyone thought he was going to leave and there was questions about it, like that whole season I would make jokes about it to him because we can joke about that stuff.”
“He really, really wants to be in Cleveland, loves it here, and really wants to win at the highest level.”
The paperwork behind the quotes
Mitchell has already signed what Merrill is describing. On July 7, the guard agreed to a four-year, $272.8 million maximum extension with a player option on the 2030-31 season and a full 15 percent trade kicker, replacing the player option he had held on the 2027-28 campaign.
The deal starts at 35 percent of the salary cap in 2027-28 and climbs with 8 percent annual raises to $75.5 million in its final year. Mitchell’s agent, Austin Brown, confirmed the terms to ESPN’s Shams Charania. The Cavaliers made it official the following day, announcing a multi-year extension for the seven-time All-Star.
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That contract is why Merrill is now able to talk about the speculation in the past tense. For two seasons, Mitchell’s name had been attached to any franchise with cap space and ambition, and the questions did not die down even after a shorter extension in 2024 kept him in Cleveland on paper.
A season that ended against the Knicks
The team Mitchell has committed to is coming off a run that ended abruptly. The Cavaliers reached the 2026 Eastern Conference Finals and were swept 4-0 by the eventual champion New York Knicks, with Game 4 a 130-93 loss on May 25.
Merrill’s framing of Mitchell’s commitment, “really wants to win at the highest level,” reads differently against that result. Cleveland went deeper than it had with Mitchell before, and still finished the postseason without winning a game once it got there.
Opening at Philadelphia on October 22
The next test tips off soon. The 2026-27 NBA season opens on October 20 with Boston at Detroit, Philadelphia at New York, and Oklahoma City at San Antonio. The Cavaliers are not part of that card.
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Cleveland begins its season two nights later, on the road against LeBron James and the Philadelphia 76ers on October 22. The home opener follows on Saturday, October 24, against the Brooklyn Nets, with tip-off at 7:30pm local time.
