Trusting the Set Offense
Mitchell is beyond talented; his combination of skill and athleticism is reminiscent of Kobe Bryant. For a rookie, he had a huge workload, and he responded as well as one could ask for. He does Snyder’s offensive system and Rubio’s playmaking acumen on his squad to fall back on, though.
Mitchell can create his own offense from all three levels, and the Jazz does a good job of freeing him up for off-ball looks. That said, the shooting guard in him does come out at times, and he’ll force some actions and disrupt some flow. Mitchell had an insanely high usage rate for a rookie, especially on a good team, as was demonstrated by Jonathan Tjarks of The Ringer in April.
“Mitchell had the third-highest usage rate (29.1) of first-year players who logged at least 2,000 minutes in NBA history. Most of the other seasons near the top of that list came from players in rebuilding situations, like the Mavericks’ Dennis Smith Jr., who had a usage rate of 28.9 on a 28-54 team.”
Not to nitpick too much, but when a player is shooting it that often and only hitting 43.7 of his shots, there will be some growing pains. His Synergy Sports’ statistics are really promising, though.
According to the aforementioned Tjarks, he placed in the “96th percentile among players leaguewide as a spot-up shooter” and “in the 75th percentile of players leaguewide at shooting off the dribble.”
He was in the 53rd percentile as a pick-and-roll ball-handling scorer, per Synergy, which is not awful for a young (naturally two) guard. He’ll continue to get double-teamed and teams will force him left to negate some of his dominant-hand explosion.
Mitchell will struggle at times keeping his dribble alive, and some unnecessary jumpy turnovers can happen (2.7 per game), along with inefficient looks. Andy Larsen of The Salt Lake Tribune was on it here.
Triple Team video: Donovan Mitchell picked up his dribble too early tonight, I thought. This just is not a good shot in any universe pic.twitter.com/3ZB6Jr6Xmx
— Andy Larsen (@andyblarsen) May 5, 2018
For an offense that has one of the best rolling bigs in the league in Gobert, and quality perimeter shooting threats in Joe Ingles, Royce O’Neale, Grayson Allen and Jae Crowder, that can kind of settling is a problem. Mitchell is more than capable of notching over four assists per game, and finding open men after more penetration can create more defensive breakdowns in the halfcourt.
It’s not as if Rubio does not have his fair share of the ball, either. He had a career-high 22.9 percent usage rate, but Mitchell does not have close to the vision Rubio has as a passer, and he’ll miss some scoring passes. Being around Ingles and Rubio could improve Mitchell’s shooting and passing efficiency, and allow for better man and ball movement against a quality defense.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLt5Gv08HdI
The off-ball ability of Mitchell will only get better, but he’s going to have the ball in his hands. He’s too talented not to, but he can get much better, which is scary.
Against the Houston Rockets in the postseason, he had some trouble making the right reads with Rubio out due to a hamstring injury. Bryant displayed that in an episode of “Detail” featuring Mitchell struggles in a Game 1 West Semifinals loss, as was demonstrated by Steven Ruiz of For The Win.
Earlier in the season against the Los Angeles Clippers, Mitchell showed just how effective he can be as a passer, per ESPN’s Mike Schmitz.
Some more 'lead guard' moments for Donovan Mitchell vs the Clippers. His progression as a pick and roll passer has been the most impressive part of his development. https://t.co/ng2lz2mAQx pic.twitter.com/vVZQ6T1AtT
— Mike Schmitz (@Mike_Schmitz) January 21, 2018
He’ll get better and better at this part of the game, and has already shown he can come out and produce big third quarter performances when his team needs it.
Next Up: Improve Efficiency in Transition Situations
