Inside The Heat

Udonis Haslem Doubles Down On Comments About Donovan Mitchell Possibly Leaving Cleveland Cavaliers

Shandel Richardson

Russell Isabella-USA TODAY Sports

Miami Heat legend Udonis Haslem is quickly becoming a fan favorite during his career as an NBA analyst.

He likely made lots of Heat fans happy with his latest comments regarding Cleveland Cavaliers star Donovan Mitchell. On a recent episode of ESPN's NBA Today, he doubled down on what he said about Mitchell last month.

Haslem feels Mitchell does not want to remain in Cleveland.

"I don't know if he's really interested in going back to Cleveland," Haslem said. "I don't think Cleveland is his first choice. I think he might really want to get out of Cleveland. If you look back when he was traded to Cleveland, Cleveland wasn't even on his radar of teams where he wanted to go. It was New York. It was another team down south somewhere [Miami]. I ain't going to say no names. But it was other teams that he was talking about going to. Cleveland was never on the list of teams that he wanted to go to in the first place."

The Heat have long been considered a potential destination for Mitchell. They were linked during free agency the past four years, mostly because of his friendship with Heat center Bam Adebayo. They work out together frequently in Miami.

Last month Haslem also questioned Mitchell's happiness in Cleveland.

"When you talk about Cleveland, I don't want no parts of that until I understand what Donovan Mitchell is going to do," Haslem said on an episode of ESPN's First Take. "He says he's happy there, but he didn't sign the extension, so I'm calling cap. If you're happy, sign the extension so we, as a front office, can say, 'Hey, we got Donovan Mitchell locked in. This is what we're going to look like the next couple years. This is the plan.'"

Shandel Richardson is the publisher of Inside The Heat. He can be reached at shandelrich@gmail.com

Published
Shandel Richardson

SHANDEL RICHARDSON

Shandel has covered the NBA since 2010, with previous stops at The Athletic and South Florida Sun-Sentinel.  He has covered six NBA Finals, one Super Bowl, the NCAA basketball tournament. He has also been a beat writer for the Miami Hurricanes and contributed on every major beat in South Florida since 2003, including the Miami Dolphins and Miami Marlins. He can also be read in the Sportsbook Review for gambling coverage from around the NBA. A native of Bloomington, Illinois, Shandel attended Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. He's also worked for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and Kansas City Star.  TWITTER: @ShandelRich EMAIL: shandelrich@gmail.com You can subscribe to our YouTube channel here Follow all of our Miami Heat coverage on Facebook here