Utah Jazz: Donovan Mitchell’s teammates have his back after poor shooting night

Despite a forgettable shooting outing in Philly on Friday, Donovan Mitchell’s Utah Jazz teammates still clearly have his back.

The Utah Jazz showed a lot of fight in their recent contest against the Philadelphia 76ers. After getting off to a slow start that saw them trail by as many as 16, they fought back to take several leads in the second half, including being ahead for much of the fourth quarter. Unfortunately, when all was said and done, the Jazz couldn’t execute down the stretch and fell by a score of 113-107.

Utah’s leading scorer in the contest was second-year player Donovan Mitchell who went off for a game-high 31 points. Unfortunately, those points came on a less than efficient 13-of-35 (37.1 percent) clip. 35 shots is a ton to heave, especially when they aren’t dropping at an ideal rate.

Inefficiency aside, though, Mitchell deserves a lot of credit for how he played in some regards. At a bare minimum, his aggression helped establish a new tone for the Jazz and allowed the team as a whole to get past their slow start to actually begin generating some offense. Not only that, but he actually took pretty good shots from inside the arc, as he finished 12-of-24 – a solid 50 percent – on his two-point tries.

I know what you’re thinking as you run the math in your head. Wait a minute, 12-of-24 from two but only 13-of-35 from the field overall? Yep, that’s right. Mitchell went an appalling 1-of-11 from beyond the arc.

Mitchell’s 3-point shooting has been tragic so far this season, as he’s dropped all the way down to 27.6 percent on the year. Especially considering his volume of nearly seven 3-point attempts per game, that’s a devastating mark.

Part of that has to do with him forcing bad shots, but part of it simply has to do with mere inaccuracy. 3-point shooting wasn’t a strong suit for Donovan last season, and while there was hopes that he could improve that aspect of his game, unfortunately he appears to be going in the wrong direction.

But the poor 3-point shooting wasn’t necessarily the worst part of his outing on Friday night. Instead, it was the fact that he put up a whopping 35 shots without logging a single assist. Yikes. That’s a far from encouraging sign.

In fact, Mitchell became just the second player in the last 20 years with a 35 field goal attempt and zero assist game alongside Carmelo Anthony. And when Melo did it, he dropped 62 points and won the game. Before that, you have to go back to 1998 to find such a stat when Boston’s Antoine Walker did the same thing. And, per ESPN, “[n]obody has taken so many shots with no assists and scored fewer points than Mitchell since the San Diego Rockets’ Elvin Hayes had 28 points in a loss Feb. 8, 1969.”

That’s some rare and unfortunate company, and a performance that prompted Donovan to say the following–

"“I took 35 shots. That can’t happen. Zero assists. That’s not who I am. That’s not how I play. I know I’m still being aggressive, but I’ve got to be smart.”"

However, despite that forgettable showing of inefficiency and failing to move the ball, Donovan Mitchell’s teammates and coach were quick to have his back. Coach Snyder made it clear that, despite some potentially poor decisions, the Jazz are simply better when Mitchell is in attack mode. As he continues to learn to make better reads, Donovan’s aggression is what will elevate Utah to another level.

Per ESPN’s Tim McMahon, teammate Joe Ingles echoed Snyder’s sentiment by stating the following–

"“We want him to be aggressive. We need him to be aggressive. I said it to him during one of the timeouts: If he feels good about the shot and it’s a good shot within our offense, he needs to shoot it. If he’s 1-for-20 or 20-for-20, it doesn’t matter for us. He’s our guy. That’s what he does. He’s aggressive.”“He doesn’t need to overthink it. He doesn’t need to think that it’s his fault that we lost. I think the last thing he needs to do is be worrying about it.”"

Rudy Gobert offered somewhat of a stricter message, but still had encouragement for his young teammate–

"“His No. 1 strength is to get to the rim and make plays. He needs to learn to make the right decision at the right time. It’s not easy. The NBA is hard. It’s a tough league. He’s learning.”"

Learning indeed. And it’s clear Mitchell still has a lot of it to do. But the only way he can continue to put the pieces together is to keep up his attack. Despite his shortcomings on Friday and throughout the season thus far, it’s great to see that Mitchell’s teammates firmly have his back. They likewise recognize that they need his aggression, shot-creating and playmaking in order to have any chance on offense, so even if he goes through some growing pains, they’re clearly open to allowing him some of that free reign.

That said, Mitchell still can’t simply keep doing the same thing or fail to learn from his mistakes. He has to show improvements both in his shot selection and decision making. Fortunately, as a constant and sometimes harsh self-critic, no one seems to recognize that more than himself. He stated the following after the loss to Philly–

"“I expect to be perfect. I just can’t have a game like that, in my opinion. My teammates are always going to be there for me, having my back. My coach is always going to have my back. That’s what keeps me going, because I’m hard on myself.”“But I’m going to shoot my way out of this and just stay locked in and stay focused.”"

Staying locked in and focused is exactly what the Jazz need Mitchell to do. He has the right idea with his emphasis on aggression. Now that needs to likewise pivot into an added emphasis on timely decisions and wise shot selection. It’s not going to be easy – as Rudy Gobert said, it’s a tough league – but at least he knows that his coach and teammates have his back.

That alone should be enough for Donovan to hold his head high, even if he expects perfection and hasn’t come close to reaching it so far this season. Both Mitchell himself and overly harsh Jazz fans expecting perfection alike would do well to find some patience.

We’ve seen what Mitchell can be when he’s clicking, and he certainly is capable of not just getting back on track but excelling. Between his own inner dedication and the faith of those around him, expect him to have a breakthrough sooner rather than later as he and the Utah Jazz aim to yet become an elite force in the Western Conference.