2 Utah Jazz guards now giving off strong goldfish vibes

Not even vast piles of misses deter the Utah Jazz’s most frequent shooters.

Through three games, Utah Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell is shooting a career-low 38.7 percent from the field, in large part due to the two-time All-Star’s career-low 30.3 percent splash precision from downtown. And so it’s no surprise that his 21.7 points per game for the Jazz mark the lowest average since his 2017-18 rookie campaign.

Meanwhile, backcourt teammate Jordan Clarkson has seen his scoring dip a smidge from 18.4 points per game a season ago to 17.3 right now. One explanation is that the “Flame Thrower” is only throwing actual flames on a career-low 25.9 percent of his 3-point tries.

Nevertheless, somewhere over the pond, Ted Lasso must be proud to watch Mitchell and Clarkson “be a goldfish” by having only a 10-second memory.

Benefits of the Utah Jazz guards’ goldfish-esque approach

In harnessing this try-try-again mentality, Donovan Mitchell has averaged 11.0 deep-ball attempts per game, 2.3 more than his career-high from last season when powering the Utah Jazz to the league’s best record at 52-20. As for Jordan Clarkson, well, the reigning NBA Sixth Man of the Year is putting up a career-high 9.0 attempts of his own per game from 3-point land.

Now, some folks might argue that the green-light shooting woes of Mitchell and Clarkson thus far are indicators of escalating concern. They’d be wrong. No, despite all the wrong kind of rim-shaking from the pair, they have been the primary sources of fuel on offense for the Jazz.

In short, the team’s two top-scoring “goldfish” deserve a ton of credit for the 3-0 start, including Tuesday’s 122-110 early-statement win at home over the Northwest Division rival Denver Nuggets (2-2).

With all the heaves — even the loudest clanks — comes greater spacing for themselves and the other freewheeling yet remarkably synchronized Jazz players.

Plus, it seems Mitchell and Clarkson are far from satisfied with the individual hardware in their possession. Instead, the 25-year-old Mitchell is now entering his prime and looks to have eyes on an NBA MVP Award in his near future, while the 29-year-old Clarkson may have plans to remain the reigning Sixth Man of the Year well into his 30s.

The surest way for both men to reach those lofty goals, which would undoubtedly be to Utah’s advantage, is to continue dazzling as ultra-confident drivers and finishers while also turning into highly accurate and frequent 3-point shooters.

True, the individual 3-point stats can get ugly. That was the case when Mitchell took an 0-for-8 clip into halftime against the Nuggets. Still, just by trying to add these Steph Curry-level tools to their already loaded toolboxes, their frequent misfires nowadays are aligning with another Ted Lasso inspirational quote:

“Taking on a challenge is a lot like riding a horse. Isn’t it? If you’re comfortable while you’re doing it, you’re probably doing it wrong.”

Yes, with the Utah Jazz riding a high right now, the evidence suggests that what Donovan Mitchell and Jordan Clarkson are attempting this go-round is all right.