Summer of Spida begins: Donovan Mitchell cleared for basketball activities

According to a tweet from the man himself, Utah Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell has been cleared to return to basketball activities after being held out with a foot injury.

The 2017-18 Utah Jazz season was an overwhelming success in practically every way, particularly due to the rise of Donovan Mitchell. Nevertheless, that doesn’t change the fact that the year ended on a relatively depressing note. It wasn’t so much that the Jazz fell to the Houston Rockets in five games in the second round of the playoffs, but more that the injury bug struck at the worst possible moment.

Ricky Rubio was hurt in Game 6 against the Oklahoma City Thunder and missed the entire Houston series. Dante Exum went down in Game 4 against Houston. Then, worst of all, just when it seemed as if Donovan Mitchell could lead a charge to bring Utah back into Game 5 (he put up 22 points in the third quarter alone), he joined the ranks of the wounded as well and wasn’t able to finish the game.

Shortly after the season’s conclusion, Donovan Mitchell was seen on social media and various other platforms sporting a boot for his injured foot. Jazz Nation was obviously concerned about it, but time and time again reports indicated that it was merely precautionary. But the offseason dragged on and the boot continued to make appearances.

At one point on Twitter, Mitchell put out a simple and depressing statement related to that fact–

His ever-comical teammate Joe Ingles of course couldn’t resist a chance to chime in and give Donovan some grief, so he replied with the following–

https://twitter.com/Joeingles7/status/1002759590436470785

To which Mitchell revealed the not so surprising truth – due to the foot injury, he hadn’t been cleared to play–

Then, I would be remiss not to include Ingles’ next reply, where he called Donovan out for not simply toughening up and hitting the floor–

Ingles’ sarcastic humor is undefeated.

But getting back to the point, after a mind-blowing rookie season, the only thing that Jazz fans wanted, and I’m sure that Donovan wanted as well, was for him to be able to hit the gym and put in as much work as possible this offseason so he could continue to expand his game and transform into the star he showed signs of becoming.

Unfortunately, with said injury in the way, it appeared that the Summer of Spida would have to be put on hold.

Good news, though. According to a tweet from Donovan Mitchell himself early Tuesday morning, he’s finally been cleared–

https://twitter.com/spidadmitchell/status/1009042664891830273

In other words, his work starts now. I have no doubt that with Mitchell’s work ethic, he’s going to be able to make major strides this offseason, especially if he’s able to team up with assistant coach Johnnie Bryant and the rest of Utah’s impeccable development staff. As amazing as his rookie campaign was, there are several things he can still improve further on and he’s far from reaching his ceiling.

Now that he’s out of the boot, don’t be surprised if subtle highlights of him working his tail off on the hardwood start trickling in, giving a minor glance at just what we can expect out of the young star during the upcoming 2018-19 season. I think my J-Notes colleague Hayden Van de Maat described the reaction to Mitchell’s return to action best with the following tweet below–

Next: Utah Jazz: Donovan Mitchell continues to push Paul George recruitment

Spida is back in action, meaning the rest of the league better be prepared to #TakeNote. The young rookie phenom is only going to get better and is primed to be a major force next season.