Utah Jazz: Key to success is to put the ball in Donovan Mitchell’s hands

If the Utah Jazz hope to find more success this year and beyond, they need to focus on getting the ball to Donovan Mitchell even more than they have so far.

There’s no questioning that the most encouraging aspect of the 2017-18 season for the Utah Jazz has been the surprisingly exhilarating play of Donovan Mitchell who has absolutely taken the league by storm as he’s charged his way into the Rookie of the Year conversation. He leads all NBA rookies as well as all of his teammates in scoring and has been an absolute force offensively.

It’s no stretch whatsoever to say he’s been Utah’s best player this season, and he’s certainly been their most prolific offensive weapon. Therefore, although Mitchell already leads the team in usage percentage, if the Utah Jazz hope to find success this season, they need to continue to aim to get the ball in Donovan’s hands and let him operate at will.

For those of you who have followed several of my ‘Keys to the Game’ pieces this year, you know that I tend to like to keep them relatively short and sweet. However, in my recent one leading up to Utah’s road contest against the Miami Heat, my first key was to “Give the Ball to Donovan Mitchell” and I went on a bit of a rant that I think was actually quite accurate and applicable.

You can find the link to it in the tweet below:

Essentially my issue stemmed from the previous game against the Denver Nuggets where Mitchell posted one of his lowest usage rates of the season and essentially his lowest where he played major minutes on the court. It was a puzzling game, particularly in the second half, as it seemed like Mitchell’s Jazz teammates weren’t looking to get him the ball.

After touching on it in some detail in that aforementioned post, I felt it necessary to expound on even further after Utah’s recent loss to the Miami Heat.

Fortunately, although the contest against Miami turned out to be yet another road loss, the Jazz clearly took that key that I had described to heart and allowed Mitchell much more run than he had in Denver. Although he got off to somewhat of a slow start, he came out in the second half guns blazing as the Jazz let him attack at will in the third quarter and beyond. He ended up putting up 17 of his 29 points in the final two periods and was absolutely sensational overall.

And although his shot was off in the first half, he did an exceptional job at getting his teammates going while he was plugged into the point guard position. As the Salt Lake Tribune’s Tony Jones pointed out in his in-game tweet found below, once Mitchell was given the reins at that position, he helped spark a quick 8-0 run early in the game.

I’m sensing a bit of a pattern here… Good things happen when Mitchell gets the ball and is able to either get his shot or get his teammates involved at will. Hmm…

Unfortunately, late in the game with the Utah Jazz up by a point with an opportunity to essentially ice the game, rather than set up the red hot Mitchell, instead it was Rodney Hood who got the nod. After wasting nearly eight seconds in the backcourt (quite frankly, he probably should have actually been called for an eight second violation), he finally made his way across mid-court, waved off his teammates that were attempting to help the play, didn’t even look to pass the ball and eventually chucked up a pretty desperate shot.

Check out the possession yourself in the video below:

Some were of the line of thinking that it was a shot that he’s made plenty of times before. I was of the thought that it’s also a shot that we’ve seen him brick plenty of times before, which is exactly what happened in Miami. There’s no question in my mind that rather than entrust that big moment to Hood, the Jazz should have put the ball in Donovan Mitchell’s hands.

In fact, after struggling to get any sort of play going from the onset of the possession, Hood should have likely been smarter and shared the rock himself, at least giving Mitchell a touch. Had that happened, there’s no guarantee that the result would have been any different, but it would have at least made for a better attempt.

And that’s the basic point I’m wanting to make here. Donovan Mitchell has become Utah’s most prolific offensive player, their most effective and aggressive rim attacker, and a solid point guard with a rapidly improving court vision. With all that adding up, it should be extremely rare that he doesn’t touch the ball on any given possession and he ought to be the main guy that Utah turns to in big crunch time situations.

Even if he doesn’t take the final shot himself, he has already proven himself worthy of being the one to at least have the ball in his hands in those situations and make the decision of how the play should unfold.

Of course, some might argue that Quin Snyder and the Jazz tried to do that exact thing in the final play of the game against the Heat and that it completely backfired on them. Mitchell was forced to catch the ball in the backcourt with just about five seconds remaining and was unable to get off the kind of shot he might have liked. Take a look at what happened for yourself:

He even admitted afterwards that he should have read the situation better and made a pass to Rodney Hood (although personally I’d trust a Mitchell runner in the clutch over just about anything Hood could chuck up in crunch time), so it’s nice to see Donovan willing to own up to perceived mistakes and be willing to learn how to make the right play.

And that in and of itself is yet another reason why if the Jazz hope to find success, they need to simply plan on putting the ball in Mitchell’s hands as much as possible. Yes, he is still a rookie with just 40 NBA games under his belt and so he’s going to have inexperienced mistakes. However, even when he makes the wrong call, it’s still giving the player that will very likely grow to become Utah’s permanent go-to guy valuable experience.

In a year that’s largely looking lost already as it is, that experience is probably going to be more valuable than victories in the long run anyway.

The fact of the matter is that even though Mitchell having the ball in that final possession didn’t work out quite how the Jazz would have liked in Miami, it was still the correct call. And in more and more situations, Utah needs to take a risk and put further reliance on the rookie so he can show what he can do with an even higher usage rate.

I’d honestly love to see him fully take over the starting point guard role from Ricky Rubio as I believe he could be extremely effective that way. That may not happen this season, but we’re probably not all that far removed from such a decision ending up being the case.

Mitchell is a special talent and despite some rookie mistakes as well as some instances in which he’s struggled to find his shot, he’s been dazzling when he’s had the opportunity and freedom to go to work with the ball in his hands. Therefore, as Utah looks to find success this season and continue to groom Donovan for a bright future, it’s increasingly important that they focus on an important key – give the ball to Donovan Mitchell. Do it early and do it often.

Next: Utah Jazz: Available players that could be pursued in a trade

As Utah’s best offensive player this season, there’s no reason why he shouldn’t be utilized even more than he has been. He single-handedly helped Utah erase their recent third quarter woes with a dazzling performance on Sunday against Miami, and he could probably do even more than that throughout future games if given the chance.