#Donovan mitchell wingspan plus#
#Donovan mitchell wingspan free#

Watch here as Mitchell cuts the game to one late in the fourth quarter with DeMarcus Cousins closing out: He is taking (and making) big shots for the Jazz, filling a role most rookies can’t boast about.

His growth on offense has far outstripped even the boldest predictions for this point in his career. Only 25 games into his career, he has worked into the starting lineup and eclipsed his scoring average from his breakout sophomore season at Louisville, all while attempting fewer shots per game and knocking them down at a higher percentage. Mitchell has grown up fast on the offensive end.

#Donovan mitchell wingspan plus#

And perhaps most importantly, the team is plus 23.8 per 100 possessions with Mitchell on the floor across the same time frame. He’s also fourth among rookies in offensive points added at 11.23, according to NBA Math’s TPA database. He has been their leading scorer, averaging 23.0 points on a 49.1 field-goal percentage and 46.6 three-point percentage while pulling down 2.9 rebounds and adding 4.1 assists. 1 and another 31 points against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Dec. And Mitchell has been the breakout star of this mini-run, including a 41-point outburst against the New Orleans Pelicans on Dec. 22, the Jazz have won six of their last seven, rocketing them from 10th place up to seventh in the West. But somewhere amidst the smoke and fire of the Rudy Gobert injury, which could very well have sunk the season, the rookie found his stride.

He started slow, seemingly in line with the pre-draft assessments, averaging 8.25 points per game through his first four contests before being relegated to the bench for a stretch.

#Donovan mitchell wingspan free#

The Jazz, who feared (correctly) that their franchise wing Gordon Hayward was departing in free agency, leapt at the chance to add Mitchell. His impressive 6’11” wingspan and quick feet made him an enticing late-lottery defensive prospect, but shaky shot selection and difficulty operating as a wing in the half court kept a few teams away. Viewing the young guard as a player with tremendous two-way potential, experts thought he would need some time to acclimate himself to NBA offenses. 13-a pick that is certainly paying dividends. This season, they selected Mitchell at No. And Utah has done an admirable job finding quality players without bottoming out. Acquiring top talent is a single-lane avenue for NBA “mid-majors,” requiring the maximization of every draft selection. Free agents don’t seek out these teams, even when they have solid foundations and cap space. The Jazz looked like they were spiraling into that middling hell of 37 to 45 wins that every team tries to avoid.įor small-market teams, landing a superstar player can only happen one way: through the draft. With a defensive anchor like Gobert and a host of talented role players, it’s too skilled to land a top-five pick and too bad to really compete with the upper echelon of the West. Utah has a good roster with quality players like Derrick Favors, Joe Ingles, Rodney Hood and Ricky Rubio. The long-term outlook for this team looked bleak, too. They seemed rudderless without their center, tossed on the tumultuous seas of the Western Conference playoff race, and postseason hopes were starting to fade. The doomsday scenario Jazz fans feared since Gordon Hayward’s summer departure, that this young team would need to start over in the lottery, seemed to be coming true as the team dropped four of the next six, falling to 7-11. Worse, though, was the fact that franchise centerpiece Rudy Gobert went down with a knee injury that was supposed to sideline him for six weeks. They were 5-7 and had just lost to the Miami Heat, only managing to muster 74 points. On November 10, the outlook for the Utah Jazz seemed bleak.