Utah Jazz stud: Donovan Mitchell
If alarms surrounding Jordan Clarkson’s shooting woes had reached DEFCON 1, no Utah Jazz fan should have been ready to go nuclear over Donovan Mitchell’s struggles. He’s a better player in the midst of a less drastic slump. All the same, Mitchell’s performance last night must have been, if you’ll pardon the pun, music to the ears of Jazz fans.
Mitchell finished this contest with 27 points on 11/20 shooting from the field, and 5/11 shooting from three-point range. He paired his high-volume efficiency with 5 assists and 3 steals. Going beyond the statistics, those 3 steals reflect a higher effort level on the defensive end than Mitchell’s reputation suggests he’s capable of.
On offense, it was the same version of Mitchell that any Utah Jazz fan knows is unguardable when his three-pointer is dropping. With the Hawks defense being forced to respect Mitchell’s range, he had no trouble knifing to the basket for easy layups and dunks. Furthermore, with his scoring abilities firing on all cylinders, Mitchell was able to involve his teammates. Beyond his 5 dimes, Mitchell was responsible for a couple of nice secondary assists.
After showcasing demonstrable growth in each of his first four seasons, Mitchell has arguably stagnated in Year 5. While his 25.9 points per game are a career high, his shooting efficiency has declined relative to the 2020-21 season.
Luckily for Utah Jazz fans, the 2021-22 season is still very young. Incidentally, so is Donovan Mitchell. He still has ample time to mark this season as another year of progress. Hopefully, last night was only a beginning.