Utah Jazz: Where does Donovan Mitchell rank among top young guards?
By John Keeffer
Donovan Mitchell of the Utah Jazz has quickly established himself as a rising star in the NBA. So where does he rank among the other top young guards today?
During this time of the year, all we really have as basketball fans is debating why our player or team is better than yours.
Is Kevin Durant better than LeBron James? Is a healthy Boston better than a Kawhi Leonard-led Raptors team? Is Steph Curry or Russell Westbrook the better point guard? Will Anthony Davis become the best player in the league next season? Not to mention all of the greatest player of all time debates that go on.
I’d have to say that Utah Jazz fans are some of the best at this. Just recently I’ve seen a prime Dwight Howard verses prime Rudy Gobert debate circling around the internet.
One of the most enjoyable ones that I have seen though is the debate about where Donovan Mitchell ranks among the current young guards in the league. Maybe it’s just the proximity that the Utah Jazz, Denver Nuggets and Phoenix Suns are together, but the Mitchell, Devin Booker, Jamal Murray debate is real out here.
Decided to do a player comparison of some of the top young guards in the NBA. A few things jumped out: Donovan Mitchell is much more efficient than people give him credit for, Devin Booker carries a huge offensive load for Phoenix, and Dennis Smith Jr has a crazy ast %. pic.twitter.com/GPLTZYLfN6
— John Keeffer (@john_keeffer) September 1, 2018
There are a lot of exciting young players in today’s NBA, and it is fun to think of where this league is going, and to ponder which one of these young players will be one of the next leaders of the NBA.
For Jazz fans, it is exciting to think that we have a young guard in Mitchell who is arguably the best young guard in the league. Cross out the word young, and that is still not that farfetched of a statement. Mitchell could make a real case next season that he is one of the best shooting guards in the entire league.
Based not just on their past production but on expected improvement, I’ll rank who I believe are the top young guards in the NBA. Each of these players is under the age of 25, and played the majority of their minutes at either PG and SG this last season, or, they project to play the majority of their minutes at PG or SG next season.
Also, for those wondering, you won’t find Ben Simmons on this list. As a point forward, he is just hard to fit into any positional ranking. If you want to say he is a straight point guard, then he would be number one on this list in my mind.