Utah Jazz rookie roundup: Donovan Mitchell is an elite scorer

Utah Jazz rookie Donovan Mitchell continues to excel and prove that among all his gifts, his versatility as a scorer may be the most impressive.

As a bunch, we fans of the Utah Jazz can be insecure and feel a little inferior at times. It’s only natural when we come from arguably the smallest NBA market (one verifiable evidence of this is the number of Twitter followers for each NBA team official account).

The Jazz are often an afterthought with little to no national recognition. It took Gordon Hayward years before he got any kind of recognition and he left as soon as he got a taste of it.

Well Donovan Mitchell is changing that narrative through his winning personality and his winning play on the court.

As for where he stands compared to his fellow rookies: it’s no longer only the “Jazz stans” (see: as the kids say) marking him as the top rookie.

20 point games are falling from the sky

He was touted as a compelling “three and ‘D'” prospect who could shoot a three-point shot and play spectacular perimeter defense. Since then, he’s proven everybody wrong by showing himself as one of the NBA’s most versatile scorers.

We’re only little past the halfway point of the season and Mitchell is already in the top ten of “most 20 point games by a rookie in the last 10 seasons”, with 23.

In fact, he is still in the top 50 of the list if you only count the HALVES in which he scored more than 20 points (7).

It looks very likely that he could surpass all on the list other than Blake Griffin. It should also be noted that by the end of the season it also looks likely that fellow rookies Kyle Kuzma and Ben Simmons could join Mitchell in the top ten, which only shows 1) the strength of this rookie class 2) how special Donovan truly is to be leading the pack in a very special class.

Provided by Basketball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 2/2/2018.

Versatility like the all-time greats

One thing that some of us have been cautious of is the fact that other rookie phenoms (Tyreke Evans, Michael Carter-Williams) have had breakout rookie seasons only to slump or hit a wall.

This can happen when a player excels at a certain skill but then teams adapt and learn how to stop said skill. Donovan has struggled with various attacks at different points in the season, but his scoring volume has been relatively consistent because of his versatility.

For example, his three-point percentage has been dropping, but his finishing at the rim has steadily improved.

If you haven’t yet watched this video, it’s been floating around for week or so. It shows that not only does Donovan have the physical skill-set, he has the humility and coach-ability to improve his game at a remarkable rate.

He’s picked up moves (with the help of Jazz trainer Johnnie Bryant, no doubt) from great players from this and past generations.

More national attention

Brad Botkin, of CBS Sports, published an article earlier covering Donovan Mitchell’s development and early ties to LeBron James. It really shows that Donovan’s off-court life and personality have been a huge factor in his on-court success.

As J-Notes colleague Jared Woodcox pointed out in a recent article, Donovan has been grabbing headlines and attention aplenty this week. With a January highlight reel longer than many career reels, you can also see some of his versatility and development in action below.

Next: Utah Jazz-PHX key matchup: Donovan Mitchell vs. Devin Booker

Donovan Mitchell and the Utah Jazz are back in action against Devin Booker and the Phoenix Suns Friday night in a must-watch guard match-up.