Why Donovan Mitchell’s aggressiveness matters so much to the Utah Jazz

The Utah Jazz offense thrives when Donovan Mitchell gets to the rim and draws fouls. The All-Star has a special talent to score in bunches when he’s super aggressive.

Although the Utah Jazz are just 2-3 in their last five games, guard Donovan Mitchell has been excellent offensively, averaging 31 points a game on 48.6 percent from the field and 42.1 percent from three.

Those numbers are comfortably above his season’s averages. The most important improved stat, however, comes from the free throw line, where he’s shot an average of 7.6 a game over the last five outings.

When Donovan Mitchell is playing his best basketball, he’s using his speed to beat his defender (which he can do either one-on-one or with help from a screen) and utilizing his ability to maneuver in the paint to score, or at least get fouled.

However — and too often — Mitchell can settle on offense, pulling up before he gets to the key and shooting from the mid-range. It’s a shot he’s both comfortable with and one he can make, but it’s a shot that doesn’t usually fit in the flow of the Jazz offense and it tends to be less effective than the other available options offered to Mitchell.

When he falls into this rhythm of shooting outside the key, his drives to the basket decrease, and so do his free throw attempts. For the season, Mitchell is only shooting 4.7 free throws a game, which is too low for someone with his unique ability to finish at the rim.

In the last five games, he’s averaged 12.8 points in the paint and drew 5.4 personal fouls a game. That’s up from his season average of 9.9 PITP and just 3.9 fouls.

So Mitchell isn’t only scoring in the paint more often, but he’s spending more time down there too, which increases his chances of getting fouled and shooting one or two from the charity strike.

Free throws are what they’re called — free. In basketball, you get rewarded for your aggressiveness. Mitchell began the season driving to the hoop often, averaging five drawn  fouls a game in the year’s first five games in October, but since then, he has yet to average more than four a game during any other month.

Do the last five games show that Donovan Mitchell committed to a greater level of assertive play? I hope so. His above-the-rim athleticism and natural ability to get where he wants while moving downhill is next-level and hard to stop.

It’s the type of offense that scores points and draws fouls. For the Utah Jazz to reverse their recent trend of woes, Mitchell needs to continue playing with purpose, getting to the rim, forcing fouls, and scoring at the rate his potential speculates he can.