Donovan Mitchell is having the best season of his career. If the rest of the league hasn’t noticed yet, at least Mitchell himself and one of his teammates certainly have.
What am I talking about? Well, The Athletic released their latest player poll, conducted over All-Star weekend. In the survey, they asked, “Who is the best player in the NBA?” to which Mitchell received the third most votes, behind only Nikola Jokic, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and tied with Luka Doncic.
That would make Mitchell not only the best player in the Eastern Conference according to his peers, but also the best American player in the league.
But there’s one catch. And it’s a big one.
The Athletic only polled 18 players for this specific question. Jokic received six votes, SGA three, while Luka and Mitchell received two.
So who voted for Mitchell?
Well… Mitchell voted for himself. Telling The Athletic’s Joe Vardon, “Come on, Joe, I gotta say me, always.”
The other vote? Mitchell’s teammate Jaylon Tyson, who was also at All-Star weekend competing in the Rising Stars challenge. I have to respect a teammate who rides or dies for the other.
This means we can’t really take anything from this poll. Something tells me the voters were a little biased.
Either way, Mitchell deserves some recognition. He’s averaging 29 points and 5.9 assists per game while carrying the Cavaliers through a rough start to the season. Now he’s catapulting his team back into the mix as Eastern Conference contenders and is meshing nicely with his new backcourt partner, James Harden.
The Athletic polled more than 30 players who were in Los Angeles. The full anonymous results of that poll can be found here. Other questions from the survey include “Who has the best player podcast?” and “What’s the biggest problem facing the league today?”
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