The 13th overall guard can always bring surprises. In recent years, the Jazz has maintained a very strong competitiveness under the leadership of Mitchell in the Western Conference. Last season, he played the league's first record. Utah City, where the Jazz is located, is not a big city like New York or Los Angeles. Like the team culture of most small ball cities, they like to rely on the strength of the team to play. Watching their game is like enjoying a jazz , which is rhythmic and very beautiful. The Jazz failed to be as invincible as they did in the regular season in the playoffs last season, but I couldn't help but make me look forward to their future.
The style of the Jazz is the same as that of the Nuggets. They are biased towards team play, but the integrity is only one aspect of good results. The presence of stars is the vane that dominates the outcome of the game. The Jazz has two players who can be regarded as stars, Gobert on the inside and Mitchell on the outside. Gobert's physical condition is excellent, but his autonomous offensive ability is weak, it is destined that he can only become a functional player. Today we will talk about the cornerstone of the Jazz-Donovan Mitchell.
Mitchell is considered a player with better luck, starting his career on a playoff team. The Jazz hasn't given people a deep impression in the past. Although the team can make the playoffs all year round, they are always hovering between the first and second rounds. Mitchell's arrival can be regarded as giving Utah new hope, he is the reliable leader of the Jazz out of the West. Mitchell was the pinnacle of his debut, averaging 20.5 points, 3.7 rebounds and 3.7 assists in his rookie season. In the playoffs, he also sat firmly in the starting position and handed in a reassuring answer for the team, averaging 24.4 points, 5.9 rebounds and 4.2 assists per game, helping the Jazz successfully break through in the first round, but only stopped in the second round. At present, there are many shining points on his body, but also many shortcomings.
20-21 season Mitchell’s shooting hotspot map
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Mitchell's offense on the court basically has no dead ends, he can score the ball from any position. He is good at three-pointers, mid-range shots, and breakthrough dunks, and his overall shooting percentage is relatively high. Mitchell's favorite offensive method is face-to-face offense, and his shooting percentage at the top of the arc is generally higher. Most importantly, he has the confidence to shoot in any area. Last season was only Mitchell's fourth season into the league. He averaged 26.4 points, 4.4 rebounds, 5.2 assists, 43.8% shooting from the field and 38.6% from three-pointers. Mitchell is at the peak of his career, and his performance at the beginning of his career is satisfactory enough, but can he break through the bottleneck and continue to improve? This will determine the upper limit of his career.
Although Mitchell's shooting percentage reached 43.8%, his offense is actually relatively unstable. We can even see "two" Mitchells in a game. He may not score a goal in the first half, suddenly wake up in the second half and score 30+. This is not my fabrication, but a real situation that did exist. It can be seen from this point that Mitchell has the explosive scoring ability, but it also proves his instability. At the same time, Mitchell’s true shooting percentage is not high enough. Mitchell’s true shooting percentage last season was 56.9%. As a cornerstone player of a team, Mitchell’s true shooting percentage must reach at least 60%. Most of the stars in China have reached this standard.
So, what is the reason for the low efficiency of Mitchell, who has strong scoring ability, no dead spots on offense, and good shooting percentage? The answer is obvious: height. As a top offensive defender, Mitchell often staged basket-abuse performances on the court. His dunks were extremely violent and he even won the 2017-18 All-Star Dunk Contest championship. It is hard to imagine that such a player who loves dunking is only 1.85 meters tall, no different from ordinary people.
If you say that players with talents like , Wiggins and Zion, who are visible to the naked eye, are the best to eat,Then Mitchell has come to today step by step with the hard work of the day after tomorrow. Mitchell specializes in rugby in his early years, and that period of sports experience has created his tough physical quality. In NBA , which is as long as the forest, the disadvantage of height is easily magnified. Fortunately, Mitchell has a solid muscle, otherwise it would be difficult for him to achieve what he is today. Mitchell's height greatly affects his offensive performance, which also determines that he will not have a strong stability, which leads to his offensive efficiency compared with many stars.
Height largely determines Mitchell's style of play. First of all, his lower height means he is more agile than other players. Combined with his powerful explosiveness, he can easily get into the local penalty area. This is why he has 387 shots in the penalty area. At the same time, because of his short height, even if he enters the penalty area, he is easily disturbed by his opponents. Unless he directly completes the dunk, it is more difficult to shoot when facing defenders. This also resulted in his shooting percentage from the penalty area being only 49.9%, which is lower than that of other guards. Mitchell's finishing ability is very strong, if he does not have extraordinary anti-interference shooting ability, he is absolutely impossible to achieve such a high shooting rate. This also reflects his "big heart" from the side. According to statistics, in the playoffs of last season, Mitchell hit 71.4% at critical moments, 50% from three-pointers, and 100% from free throws.
Finally, let’s talk about Mitchell’s ability to lead the team. Mitchell's ability to lead is very strong, this is obvious. In the past, we said that a player has a strong ability to lead a team, often because the player has good scoring ability and will connect the team. But Mitchell is different. He can be said to lead his teammates by his own scoring. An average of 5.2 assists per game is enough to explain this problem. Among the league's guards, 5.2 assists are relatively small. Even Irving, who is known for his singles, has an average career assist number of 5.7, let alone players like Harden who can compete for the assists.
In other words, Mitchell can play a good performance on the field to lead the team to victory, but he cannot make his teammates better. This is also the reason why the Jazz introduced Mike Conley at a high price. Mitchell has been unable to effectively activate Gobert at the basket, and the Jazz lost a large internal scoring point. Mitchell's style of play requires the ball, you can even say that he sticks the ball, and his use of the ball is 32.7% when he is on the court.
In general, Mitchell is a very special player. He is short but has outstanding scoring ability. As a team leader, he doesn't know how to drive his teammates. I think that if Mitchell wants to lead the Jazz to make a difference in the playoffs, he must improve his passing ability. Basketball is a five-person sport, and one person's outstanding performance alone is not enough. In this regard, he can learn from Paul , who is also a short defender. Paul was also very keen on personal offense in the early part of his career, and gradually improved his assist ability in the middle and late stages. If Mitchell can do this, I believe his achievements will not be low.
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