New Roster, Same Great Donovan Mitchell

MILWAUKEE, Wis. – The Utah Jazz debuted most of their new roster against the Milwaukee Bucks in their second preseason game, and for the most part, the newcomers struggled.

Mike Conley and Bojan Bogdanovic combined to shoot a woeful 0-14 from the field, and never checked in after half-time. Both players got caught forcing passes, clearly lacking a steady feel for coach Quin Snyder’s offense, or their new teammates. 

If Conley and Bogdanovic are still students of Snyder’s game, third-year guard Donovan Mitchell was the professor in the classroom and displayed his doctorate level understanding of his coach’s game plan.

Mitchell, like the rest of the team’s starters, had a short night, sitting out the entire second half, but two quarters was enough to put to rest any concern there may have been that Mitchell wasn’t ready to take the next step in his star-level progression. 

Mitchell recorded his first bucket on a floater 1:17 into the game which was goaltended by Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo. It’s an important shot in Mitchell’s development, as he continues to develop his scoring attack.

Last season, Mitchell shot nearly a quarter of his shots from 3-10 feet, the third most frequent distance of any shot he attempted, behind only shots at the rim, and three-point shots, yet had his lowest field goal percentage from anywhere on the floor, completing just 34% of his attempts.

The floater allows Mitchell to avoid physical contact in the paint when driving to the hoop, and pulls defenders away from Rudy Gobert, setting the big man up for easy dunk opportunities. Seeing Mitchell’s floater account for points early in the season is a good sign. 

second half, here we come pic.twitter.com/9mp0sQpWJp

— Utah Jazz (@utahjazz) October 10, 2019

Mitchell missed his second attempt, a layup at the rim, that was followed up by an Ed Davis put back for two points. These types of baskets have been called “Kobe Assists” after Los Angeles Lakers great Kobe Bryant, whose offensive pressure garnered so much attention from opposing defenses, that offensive rebounding teammates regularly scored on easy put-back attempts.

Davis is one of the league’s best offensive rebounders, ranking 4th last season in the NBA in offensive rebound percentage. Last season, Gobert ranked 7th. Mitchell’s ability to get to the rim is key, and while he’s an effective finisher on his own, the put-back opportunities he creates by attacking the paint are a weapon on their own. 

Mitchell’s next three baskets came on jump shots from 15 feet, 17 feet, and again from 17 feet. It’s easy in the modern NBA to dismiss mid-range shots as bad shots, as it’s nearly impossible to make them at a rate that translates to points as efficiently as layups and three-point shots do.

While that’s true, it doesn’t mean there’s no room for the mid-range game in the modern NBA, and sometimes, it’s even a necessity.

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The Jazz have been eliminated from the playoffs in back to back years by the Houston Rockets, and despite largely neutralizing the three-point shooting and rim attacking game of Rockets guard James Harden, the Jazz were eliminated in both series in a short five games. A large part of those short series was the Rockets’ ability to adjust and attack the Jazz from the midrange. The Golden State Warriors were the model for modern basketball over the past half-decade, winning three championships in five years largely due to their lethal three-point shooting. But last season the Warriors took the second most mid-range jump shots of any team in the NBA, and still coasted to the NBA Finals. As league defenses continue to evolve towards protecting the paint, and eliminating three-point shots, the mid-range jump shot is often left unattended. Mitchell connected on three of his four mid-range jump shots and helped to keep the Jazz afloat in an otherwise ugly first quarter. 

Sandwiching his final mid-range jumper were two assists from Mitchell, the first to find an open shooter in the corner, in his case an open Jarrell Brantley as Mitchell came off a screen atop the three-point line. These looks should be common for the Jazz this season with Gobert setting screens, and Bogdanovic and Joe Ingles parked in the corners of the court behind the three-point line. The second assist came when Mitchell caught the Milwaukee defense sleeping, catching a pass, and in one motion finding Tony Bradley under the hoop for an easy layup. It was a full display of Mitchell’s understanding not only where his teammates were, but where the defense wasn’t, and Mitchell wasted no time making them play. 

↪️ #UTAatMIL ↩️ pic.twitter.com/MPqzwxGuQ5

— Utah Jazz (@utahjazz) October 10, 2019

Mitchell’s second quarter consisted of four made free-throws on five attempts, and a driving layup in which he finished over a defender in traffic. Unlike his early floater or potent midrange game, these were forced issue baskets, in which Mitchell simply overpowered his defender, and earned a trip to the free-throw line, or a finish at the rim. As a go-to scorer in the NBA, Mitchell will for long stretches have to take what the defense gives him, as he did in the first quarter where he attacked the Bucks soft mid-range defense. In the second quarter, Mitchell created offensive opportunities for himself when his teammates were struggling, not longer setting for playing the role of the distributor. 

When analysts have asked whether Mitchell is ready to take the next step as a pro, and elevate his game to a point where he carries the Jazz when they need him most, Wednesday night’s first-half performance is what they were hoping to see. Despite a 64-46 blowout deficit at the end of Mitchell’s night, the Jazz were outscored by just nine points in the 18 minutes he was on the floor. The next closest plus-minus starter for the Jazz was Jeff Green, who saw the team outscored by 21 points in his 20 minutes he recorded. Mitchell finished the night with 14 points on 5-9 shooting, five rebounds, and two assists.

The Jazz newcomers struggled mightily in their first true test of the preseason and ultimately fell to the Bucks 133-99. For anyone wondering if Donovan Mitchell was ready to take the next step in his trajectory towards NBA stardom, it appears he already has.