Mountains and Plateaus
At 27 years old, Rudy is close to his peak if he hasn’t attained it already. We basically know what we can expect out of Gobert every night for the next five years. He could try to add a reliable post move or extend his range to the three point line to raise his ceiling, but as it already stands Gobert is a positive on offense.
He works in Quin Snyder’s system as a screen and roll specialist, once again a leader in screen assists (first since 2016-17) and percentile as a rolling man (93rd percentile last season). The most effective thing Gobert could add to improve his offense immediately is to make more of his free throw attempts.
As for Mitchell, he is only 23 years old and still on a rookie contract. His development trajectory is climbing and showing no signs of stopping anytime soon.
He hasn’t changed his shot chart the way we would’ve liked him to, but he’s also added a dangerous mid-range arsenal so it’s hard to complain. Things like ball handling, shooting, and conditioning are something a perimeter player like Mitchell can always work on.
Assuming Donovan continues to work on those things in addition to the game slowing down for him, he can easily surpass Gobert as the better Jazz player. That is though, if he hasn’t surpassed Gobert already.
On the KIA MVP ladder on NBA.com, it is Mitchell that is listed in the top 10 for most likely to win the award. Quin Snyder has chosen all season to stagger Mitchell’s minutes with the second unit, as evidenced by Donovan having the slight edge in minutes per game (34.4) over Gobert (34.2).
They are awfully close right now, and it’s a toss up right now for who is the better player. But regardless of who is better right now, both are super valuable to the Utah Jazz. A big reason why the Jazz got off to slow starts the past couple seasons is because of knee injuries to Gobert (fall of 2017) and a foot injury to Mitchell (fall of 2018).
Now that the Jazz finally had both of their star players available for all but two games this season, they are off to their best start in the Quin Snyder era and currently on pace to win 56 games.
Gobert may hold the edge on All-NBA team selections, but to me it appears that Mitchell will get the first All-Star selection of the duo.