Utah Jazz: Donovan Mitchell selected for Rising Stars, but likely not the Dunk Contest

Utah Jazz rookie Donovan Mitchell will participate in NBA All-Star Weekend’s Rising Stars event, but isn’t likely to be in the Dunk Contest.

If the Utah Jazz had anyone worthy of being considered an All-Star so far this season, it would without a doubt be rookie Donovan Mitchell. He’s leading all rookies as well as all his Jazz teammates in points per game at 19.1 and has been far and above Utah’s most exhilarating and prolific offensive threat.

Since it was always a long-shot for him to be named an All-Star this year, though, the fact that he was held off that prestigious list came as little surprise, but Donovan will indeed be participating during All-Star Weekend. It was announced on Wednesday that Mitchell has been selected for the Rising Stars roster as a member of the United States team.

The Rising Stars game, of course, features some of the best first and second year players across the league and pits 10 from the United States against 10 from the rest of the world. It comes as little surprise that Donovan was selected considering that he’s made his mark as one of the most dominant young players in the NBA and a potential candidate for the Rookie of the Year Award.

He will be joined on the U.S. Team by Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram and Kyle Kuzma of the Los Angeles Lakers, Malcolm Brogdon of the Milwaukee Bucks, Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum of the Boston Celtics, John Collins of the Atlanta Hawks, Kris Dunn of the Chicago Bulls and Dennis Smith Jr. of the Dallas Mavericks.

Meanwhile, the World Team will be comprised of Bogdan Bogdanovic (Serbia) and Buddy Hield (Bahamas) of the Sacramento Kings, Dillon Brooks (Canada) of the Memphis Grizzlies, Joel Embiid (Cameroon), Dario Saric (Croatia) and Ben Simmons (Australia) of the Philadelphia 76ers, Lauri Markkanen (Finland) of the Chicago Bulls, Jamal Murray (Canada) of the Denver Nuggets, Frank Ntiliknia (France) of the New York Knicks and Domantas Sabonis (Lithuania) of the Indiana Pacers.

Rising Stars will take place on Friday, Feb. 16 at 7:00 PM MT at Staples Center in Los Angeles as part of the first night of All-Star Weekend action.

While it was unsurprising to see Mitchell fall short of being an All-Star and was expected that he would end up on the Rising Stars roster, Jazz fans were certainly disappointed this week to learn that the high-flying rookie likely won’t receive an invitation to participate in this year’s Dunk Contest.

Despite the fact that Mitchell expressed earlier interest in being a contestant and while the participants haven’t been officially announced, a leak revealed which four players are presumably going to be among the field of dunkers and Mitchell wasn’t one of them. He also stated on Wednesday that he hadn’t received an invitation.

According to a report from Yahoo Sports’ Shams Charania, Aaron Gordon of the Orlando Magic, Victor Oladipo of the Indiana Pacers and Dennis Smith Jr. of the Dallas Mavericks have accepted invites to participate in the Dunk Contest while the league has extended an invite to Larry Nance Jr. of the Los Angeles Lakers for the fourth and final spot.

However, shortly after this announcement came to light, it was seemingly refuted by Smith and Nance on Twitter, per the tweets below, which has brought some confusion to the situation.

Nevertheless, it seems quite likely that this will be the field and, as I mentioned before, the fact that Mitchell stated he hadn’t received an invitation likely doesn’t bode well for his chances.

This is quite the disappointment as Mitchell has had no shortage of highlight reel dunks this season that have swept social media and even landed on SportsCenter’s Top 10. In case you needed a little reminder, below are a few of his most impressive dunks this season.

Doesn’t that look like a worthy participant in the Dunk Contest to you?

In a recent piece that I wrote about Mitchell’s case for being in the Dunk Contest, I actually picked Oladipo and Nance as being two I’d love to see as contestants alongside him, so I’m perfectly happy with those potential choices. Oladipo had the Dunk of the Year in last season’s NBA Awards while Nance has a long reputation of awesome jams. Smith has also been an electrifying dunker as well and I’m excited to see his acrobatics in action.

However, the fact that he is in the contest as a rookie makes it all the more nonsensical that Mitchell wouldn’t also field an invite. In my opinion, Mitchell certainly should have gotten the nod over Aaron Gordon who, although I believe should have won his first year, was disappointing last year and hasn’t officially won either time he’s been in the contest. Bringing him back for a third year straight seems like overkill. Let’s get some fresh blood – i.e. Donovan Mitchell.

We’ll wait until the Dunk Contest contestants are officially released before we start rioting, but make sure you have those torches and pitchforks at the ready, Jazz fans.

All jokes aside, as discouraging as it will be to not get to watch Mitchell’s high-flying jams during the Dunk Contest, seeing him in action during Rising Stars will be an absolute blast and hopefully an opportunity for him to further show his worth and solidify his title as one of the most promising rookies in the league.

Next: Report: Utah Jazz showing interest in Knicks’ Hernangomez

And just as he should be, Mitchell has made it clear that rather than get lost in the noise of the approaching All-Star Weekend, he’s more focused on winning games now, just like he and his Utah Jazz team did in Detroit on Wednesday night.

The Jazz will look to continue that trend as they hit the court next in a tough road game against the Toronto Raptors on Friday at 5:30 PM MT.