Ranking Utah Jazz star Donovan MItchell among shooting guards at All-Star break

Utah Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell vs Devin Booker

Donovan Mitchell and Devin Booker will probably always be intrinsically linked. That’s what happens when you’re the same age (25), play the same position in the same conference, and occupy a similar place in the league’s hierarchy.

This is a Utah Jazz page. We could certainly be accused of bias here. Still, it’s telling that Mitchell paced Booker in all 3 of the categories considered here.

He might just be a little better.

That’s not a knock on Booker. He’s one of the purest scorers in the National Basketball Association. His ability to alter his jump shot mid-air to beat a defense is almost unmatched. He is a fundamentalist dream: a genuine triple threat, three-level bucket.

A couple of things keep him back from Mitchell’s level. Firstly, Mitchell is more athletic. That allows him to manipulate his body on layup/dunk attempts to a higher degree than Booker. He’s a little faster and he jumps a little higher.

The Utah Jazz star also has slightly stronger court vision, averaging 5.2 assists to Booker’s 4.5. While this is a comparison of the league’s best shooting guards, if you needed one of these guys to run point in pickup, you’re taking Mitchell.

While Mitchell’s edge on Booker is narrow in terms of both points per game and Win Shares, his lead in RAPTOR is considerable. That’s the most comprehensive of all these measures, so we’re opting to trust it.

Call us biased if you must. You just can’t make the same claim about the numbers.