{"id":609501,"date":"2026-02-18T09:41:30","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T09:41:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/609501\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T09:41:30","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T09:41:30","slug":"central-notes-mitchell-harden-bickerstaff-dillingham-brown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/609501\/","title":{"rendered":"Central Notes: Mitchell, Harden, Bickerstaff, Dillingham, Brown"},"content":{"rendered":"

Donovan Mitchell<\/a> doesn\u2019t have any concerns about how he and James Harden<\/a> will mesh in the Cavaliers\u2019 new starting backcourt, he told Marc J. Spears of Andscape<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve never played with a guy like James Harden. I never had a guy like that on my team,\u201d Mitchell said. \u201cAnd we\u2019re not here to figure out like who\u2019s bigger, better or whatever. How are we going to win? And I think having that relationship helps. But it also speaks to the type of people that he and I are. We\u2019re trying to figure what\u2019s right. For him to go out there and say he\u2019s trying to help me, that\u2019s huge. That\u2019s huge for everything. \u2026 Winning is the end all, right? I\u2019m not worried about how we\u2019ll fit and how we\u2019ll coexist because we have the same goal in mind, and it doesn\u2019t matter how we get there. We just want to get there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mitchell also touched on a number of other topics in a monthly diary, including his feelings on the sad way Chris Paul<\/a>\u2018s career ended.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s more from the Central Division:<\/p>\n

Following J.B. Bickerstaff\u2019s dismissal as head coach of the Cavaliers after the 2023\/24 season, he wasn\u2019t sure if he\u2019d ever get another opportunity, he told Steve Bulpett of Heavy.com<\/a>. \u201cI didn\u2019t think I was going to get a job,\u201d he said. \u201cThere weren\u2019t jobs available at that point. So I was just sitting at home and hanging out with my family back in Cleveland trying to figure out what was next.\u201d New Pistons president of basketball operations Trajan Langdon soon offered him a head coaching job within the division. He learned from his days in Cleveland how to improve in his next stop. \u201cThat month that I had off gave me an opportunity to, like, evaluate myself and think about what I was going to be at the next opportunity and just understanding that the focus should always be on the process and not just focused on the results,\u201d he said. \u201cIn my last year in Cleveland, I let that get the best of me, where it was like results, results, results. And we skipped some of the process stuff.\u201d
\nRob Dillingham<\/a>, a 2024 lottery selection, had trouble cracking the Timberwolves\u2019 rotation and getting sustained minutes. After getting traded<\/a> to the Bulls, Dillingham is getting a long look from coach Billy Donovan. Dillingham has averaged 11.0 points, 4.0 assists, 3.7 assists, 2.0 steals and 2.3 turnovers in 24.7 minutes per game over three appearances. \u201cHis job and responsibility is to generate shots for guys when he gets (inside) and understand the shots where he has angles and can shoot a high percentage on and the shots he can\u2019t,\u201d Donovan said, per Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun Times<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s not like I\u2019m giving him free rein, we need him downhill, but he also can\u2019t be jumping off two feet, getting caught in the air, trying to shoot over guys, trying to throw passes that aren\u2019t there. He\u2019s got to clean that up and we\u2019ve got to help him do it. What I don\u2019t want him to do is not be aggressive or be afraid to attack. He has to attack. He just has to make better decisions, and I think that will come in time.\u201d
\nAlong with acquiring<\/a> Ivica Zubac<\/a> from the Clippers, the Pacers also added guard Kobe Brown<\/a> in the deal. Brown was only averaging 8.7 minutes with the Clippers but could see his minutes jump the remainder of the season with Indiana. \u201cI\u2019m grateful, for sure. Grateful to be in this position,\u201d he told Tony East of CircleCitySpin.com<\/a>. \u201cI feel like this team is a great team. Obviously, they were just in the Finals last year and were so close to winning it. And for them to want me here is big. So I\u2019m happy and excited to be here and be a part of it.\u201d Brown has played in two games with Indiana thus far, including a start against Brooklyn on Wednesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Donovan Mitchell doesn\u2019t have any concerns about how he and James Harden will mesh in the Cavaliers\u2019 new…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":609502,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3724],"tags":[7,2596,864,532,1648,560,4042,977,6244],"class_list":{"0":"post-609501","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-chris-paul","10":"tag-donovan-mitchell","11":"tag-ivica-zubac","12":"tag-j-b-bickerstaff","13":"tag-james-harden","14":"tag-kobe-brown","15":"tag-rob-dillingham","16":"tag-trajan-langdon"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116090980852667400","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=609501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609501\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/609502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=609501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=609501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=609501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}