Utah Jazz: Three positives and three negatives about Donovan Mitchell in FIBA group play

Negative No. 2 – Over-Reliance on Threes

This admittedly goes hand-in-hand with Mitchell’s efficiency struggles, but it’s been enough of a negative that it deserves being called out on its own. Simply put, Donovan Mitchell is firing far too many threes when he should be relying on other skills. He’s second only to Kemba Walker in three-point attempts with a whopping 28. Kemba has 29 but is converting at a 41.4 percent clip. Meanwhile, the next closest player on the roster (Khris Middleton) only has 20 attempts.

That’s far too many for Mitchell, especially considering that he’s on a team that features several better deep-threats than himself. True, if Mitchell was burning the nets down with unprecedented three-point accuracy, his high attempts would be an easier pill to swallow. But even then, perimeter shooting simply isn’t his forte. Mitchell needs to play to his strengths and attack rather than settling for long-range bombs.

We all know what a prolific finisher he is at the rim, and it would be good to see him get going by getting into the paint and using his athleticism to score easy buckets. Doing so would most likely elevate Team USA’s offense and would almost certainly increase his percentages. Mitchell’s over-reliance on threes has led to him logging just two free throw attempts to 47 field goal attempts in FIBA play. And those came while Brazil was in the bonus, they weren’t the result of an aggressive drive to the hoop.

True, there may be some concern about going too hard at the rim, not wanting to risk injury in international play that pales in comparison to the importance of the NBA season, but there’s still more Mitchell could be doing rather than chucking threes. Considering that many of the shots have come early in the shot clock, Mitchell could easily get to a better spot i.e. at the elbow for a cleaner look, or aim instead to share the ball rather than pull up from three.

Personally, I’d rather see him finish with fewer points and fewer three-point attempts and even more assists than to continue to come up empty and inefficient from behind the arc.

Adding a deadly three-point shot would work wonders for Mitchell’s game, and we saw him possess that skill for the latter half of last season. But it’s clearly something he’s still far from perfecting. So for now, with USA facing do-or-die situations through the tournament’s conclusion, it would be preferable if he would cut down on the three-point attempts and focus instead on getting better looks for either himself or his teammates.