Utah Jazz first-quarter grades: SGs Donovan Mitchell and Grayson Allen

Donovan Mitchell

During his incredible (and, in some ways, historic) rookie season, Donovan Mitchell was the surprise of the league, becoming an instant sensation despite his late-lottery status and leading his team to the playoffs.

In year two, though, he’s not catching anyone off-guard.

Some called him inefficient a season ago, this year he’s been even less apt to put the ball in the basket at a reasonable rate. Even after scoring 29 points on 50 percent shooting against Brooklyn, he’s hitting on just 42 percent from the field and his 3-point accuracy is really off at 29 percent, yet he continues to fire triples off at a rate of seven per game.

And while he’s not not going to the line, his free throw rate of .224 (which equates to four attempts per game for Mitchell) leaves something to be desired

All told, the Jazz offense has not been good with Mitchell leading the attack. Utah scores just 103.5 points per 100 possessions when he’s on the floor this season, which is well below average. When your go-to scorer causes your offense to be below average, that’s a major problem.

Still, Mitchell is putting up a cool 21-4-3 line and adding nearly two steals per contest for good measure so far. And the offensive problems are far from his own doing; it’s definitely been a group effort there.

If the Nets game is a sign of things to come, we’re on the right trick here. In any case, Mitchell definitely has some work to do if he’s going to lead the Jazz back to the postseason.

First-quarter grade: C+

Other first-quarter grades: Point Guards (Rubio, Exum, Neto)
Small Forwards (Ingles, O’Neale)