Mitchell was a 20+ FGA guy in Utah the last two seasons before he came here. His game looks no different to me at all. So either both coaches coached him exactly the same way...or that's just who he is as a player.
Is it possible that Mitchell is only doing what JBB tells him? Sure, if you assume JBB tells him to take long contested threes early in the game, and early in the shot clock. We've all seen it. Or if he's told to put on blinders, ignore his teammates, and just drive to the hoop whether the shot is there or not.
Now he obviously isn't doing that every possession, but given that no coach would ever tell a player to do either of those things, you've got to assume that some of this is just Mitchell himself.
It's called a green light, where the HC tells the player to be his best self, play his game his way, yata yata. I'd wager JBB tells Mitchell, Garland and LeVert to do this at certain points of the game and JBB plans on living with the results for better or worse. Then perhaps they critique how it went when they review the game videos. Maybe they don't even do this much. I think they're sold that this is how to win.
I think the team practiced running a motion offense a lot in the pre season, and I'm sure they all understand what to do. But the 2015 Golden State Warriors aren't showing up wearing Cavs uniforms anytime soon. They appear to run it early in games, and for as long as it seems to be effective. Other parts of games they go P&R heavy, mix in some ISO, some various 2 man plays, some back door cuts, sometimes they even feed the post and see what happens. I think it's good to use all these strategies depending on how we're being defended. The devil is knowing the most effective way to attack and then execute it with everyone being on the same page. But this Cavs team, once they go away from a motion offense in a game, they never seem to go back to it.
And when push comes to shove and we really need a bucket, you can bet they'll spread the floor and either Mitchell, Garland, or LeVert will be out by the center circle dribbling the air out of the ball, surveying the court, only to try to beat their defender off a dribble drive, or pull up for a three like prime time Jordan or Lebron. You can't tell me this isn't the plan and the design, because they pretty much do it every time in those situations.
I personally hate it and for the life of me I don't understand why they don't move the defense with some passes and player movement but the best you get is maybe a screen. I assume they're afraid of making a turnover off a bad pass. Crunch time is ISO time whether it's Mitchell, Garland or LeVert.
