Mitchell played college basketball for the Louisville Cardinals, earning first-team all-conference honors in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) in 2017. Nicknamed " Spida", he was drafted in the first round of the 2017 NBA draft with the 13th overall pick. (born September 7, 1996) is an American professional basketball player for the Cleveland Cavaliers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). But on the Jazz as constructed, Mitchell remains the ceiling of the team.Mitchell with the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2022ĭonovan Mitchell Jr. Like the Jazz team around him, Mitchell needs to work on his late-game decision making and his defence, which too often has undercut the league's best offence and left the Jazz only third favourites to come out of the West. As a shorter shooting guard (enormous wingspan notwithstanding) who takes a lot of jump shots, it is easy to levy the accusation of "chucker" at Mitchell on the nights they are not falling due to the aesthetics of it all, but it is one that is increasingly difficult to defend based on his results.Ĭonsidering that all this has come in the regular season, and that Mitchell has had some of the best playoff performances of anyone in the league, there could be more progress to come. And should he ever need to go back to the middy, it is still there, the hallmark of a true three-level triple-threat scorer.Įfficiency has been Mitchell's biggest criticism in his career to date, but as the improvements have been gradual, they have perhaps gone unnoticed. Yet even when accounting for the nights that he can be jump-shot happy, Mitchell shoots 36% from three on a high volume, a good counterbalance to the ever-improving game off the bounce. He has a bag of tricks whether using or rejecting the screen and when going to either hand, and, if given any slither of room for a jump shot off the bounce, he is as good of an exponent of that as almost anyone.Īn anomalous dip in his corner three-point shooting affects his overall percentage from that range, as does taking shots more frequently from a Damian Lillard-esque range. The pick-and-roll is the go-to play for the Jazz, and Mitchell keeps improving in it. He is getting to the rim more, and he is finishing better once there. He is scoring in the half court in terms of efficiency and volume, ranking fourth in the league in pick-and-roll possessions per game, behind only Trae Young, Luka Doncic and Ja Morant.Īlways a beast at exploiting opposing switches, Mitchell has used the tools in his bag this year more to get to the rim, and has eschewed many of the pull-up two-pointers that he would have taken more in season's past. In pick-and-roll possessions, he is in the 92nd percentile in the league with a 1.088 points per possession average, and is in the 93rd percentile in isolation possessions at a hefty 1.115 PPP. Last season, those numbers were 62.1% and 49.7% respectively. Whereas the initial blow-by could sometimes see him slow down a touch on the second and third dribbles, sometimes necessitating the mid-ranger, the 2021-22 version of Donovan Mitchell is consistently decisive on the drive, and driving all the way to the basket.Īt the rim this season, Mitchell is shooting 72.4%, and is posting a cumulative 55.9% on all attempts within ten feet of the basket. On the drive, Mitchell seems now to have less hesitation going deeper down the lane. In large part, this has come from a change in his shot profile. 492 from inside the arc, Mitchell this season is instead shooting. 555, and it comes from a distinct improvement in his two-point scoring efficiency. This is a career-best efficiency for him that raises his career regular season mark to. This is the area in which Mitchell has most developed this season, in one area in particular. From there, a look at the efficiency marks on which he has posted those numbers tells a more intricate story of his improvements.
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