Long overdue: Utah Jazz player receives top honor

The 11-year drought of one monthly award is finally over for the Utah Jazz.

Considering the Utah Jazz franchise set an NBA record for regular-season wins in one calendar year with 76 W’s, it was only fair for a Jazz player to snag at least one Player of the Month in 2021. Well, Utah fans technically had to wait until this first week of 2022 to see it happen.

But as of Tuesday, it’s official: Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell, Western Conference Player of the Month for December 2021.

Despite five consecutive playoff appearances and plenty of budding stars under head coach Quin Snyder, no Utah weapon had been Player of the Month since former point guard Deron Williams garnered the honor for his artistry in November 2010.

Mitchell, however, made sure to put an end to the nonsense by filling up stat sheets with impressive regularity, particularly in the scoring department. He did so for a Jazz bunch that tallied a 12-2 record in December.

Across the 12 games Mitchell played, the 25-year-old sensation averaged 30.2 points, 5.0 assists, 3.2 boards, and 1.2 steals.

Competition from a Utah Jazz teammate

Another Jazz sensation, center Rudy Gobert, had a case to be the Western Conference Player of the Month for December. After all, the three-time Defensive Player of the Year and two-time All-Star played in all 14 games and was no stranger to setting personal records during the stretch.

However, that’s not at all to say fellow two-time All-Star Donovan Mitchell wasn’t well deserving of the hardware.

What it does say, though, is candidates for such awards ought to be easy to spot in Salt Lake City these days. So the voters shouldn’t be as shy as they have been the past decade in selecting Jazzmen.

Donovan Mitchell and the Utah Jazz, still at No. 3 in the West with a 27-10 record, continue their current road trip with a bout against the Denver Nuggets (18-17) at 8 p.m. MT Wednesday.