Who Did It Better? Cavs' Craig Porter Jr. Mimics Donovan Mitchell
Anything you can do, I can do too.
At least that's what Cleveland Cavaliers two-way rookie Craig Porter Jr. suggested to Donovan Mitchell at practice recently. Turns out, he was right.
With the wine-and-gold blowing out the Washington Wizards in the fourth quarter on Wednesday night, Porter busted out a hard bounce, up-and-over move to get a bucket using his floater. After the fact, he pointed right at Mitchell, who was grinning from ear-to-ear on Cleveland's bench.
Why'd that look so familiar? Because it's one of Spida's go-to specials.
"I stole one of his moves," Porter said, joking after the win. "He was telling me in practice, he swears I can't do that move. I tried to tell him, it's not that hard to do. He gets a little more respect from defenders, so they let him do it."
"It looked good on him, so I hope he keeps doing it," Mitchell added with a laugh. "It's pretty dope to see him just continue to flourish and continue to be himself. I told him the reason why he didn't get the foul called and missed the layup, got blocked, he should have dunked it. Stop going up soft."
Dec 20, 2023; Cleveland, Ohio, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers guard Craig Porter (9) drives to the basket as Utah Jazz forward John Collins (20) defends in the second quarter at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.
David Richard-USA TODAY Sports
Porter finds it even funnier that he'd never tried it before that moment.
"That's actually the first time I ever attempted it," Porter said. "I've never done it in practice either. I just always see him do it and I always laughed at it, but I guess it worked, so I might have to just put that in my bag too."
"It was funny," Jarrett Allen added. "We all said it at the same time when Craig hit that move, 'You stole that from Donovan.' But that's just kudos to Craig for having the ability to make a move like that. That's no easy move by any stretch. But it's just great chemistry all around. We're having fun. We're competing and playing as a team."
If you're wondering about the move itself, I asked Mitchell about it specifically last season. He went into great detail about how it's effective and the way he's sharpened its execution.
Mitchell's secrets are no longer safe from Porter, but that's okay with him.
"He pointed at me after he did it," Mitchell said. "Like I told him, keep using it, keep going. His floater game is pretty good. So it was dope.
"He's phenomenal. He's continued to learn. He's a sponge. He's composed. He's poised. It's great to see that out of him.”
