Four reasons why Utah Jazz fans should already love Donovan Mitchell

He’s already tried to recruit Gordon Hayward

Mitchell has yet to even suit up for the Utah Jazz in a Summer League game but he clearly already knows how important it is to the team’s future to keep Gordon Hayward in their ranks. If you blinked, you might have missed it, but Donovan Mitchell already sent a subtle tweet to the Jazz All-Star hinting that he should stay put.

In the since-deleted tweet, Mitchell sent Hayward a screenshot of the Utah Jazz roster on NBA2K that had both his name listed as well as that of Gordon Hayward. The tweet simply had Hayward’s handle followed by two shrugging emojis and a monkey covering its mouth, seeming to say, in my mind, “Welp, there’s both our names, guess we really are destined to be teammates!”

https://twitter.com/loganspell3/status/878591927427489792

This was a tiny gesture and who knows if Hayward took it with anything more than perhaps a brief chuckle, but it’s still a positive sign to see out of the Louisville rookie. His understanding of how crucial and exciting it would be to continue to have Hayward in a Jazz uniform and get to play alongside him is very reassuring. Not to mention, the fact that he is willing to go out on a limb and reach out to a player much more established than him for recruitment purposes gives us a small glimpse of Mitchell’s confidence.

And if the ability and determination to recruit other players to Utah becomes a hidden talent of Mitchell’s, I don’t think that any Jazz fan would complain. In fact, his move to coax Hayward into staying was already met with some satisfaction from Jazz fans:

I know I, for one, would love to see Mitchell and Hayward take the court together for years to come!