Most of the shots he took were good makable shots, just didn’t go down.
I just rewatched the game with the explicit purpose of seeing what wrong Mitchell did to deserve the comments here. With the exception of a couple of shots that EVERY SINGLE primary scorer in the league gets EVERY SINGLE GAME, everything else was in the flow of the offense - either on penetration to the rim, or wide open on the catch or coming off the pick and roll, or with expiring shotclock or in transition. He had a couple of turnovers where he got caught in the air without a clear idea about what he's gonna do. Those are not ideal and he should try to eliminate them, but they happen.
I have close to zero issue with what Mitchell did and I actually thought he played his heart out on defense because he felt that he was letting his team down because of all the missed shots and was trying to effect the game in other ways... which he did. And then he was clutch at the FT line in the final minute. My problem with him right now is not with the shots he takes... it's that he doesn't make them with the consistency he needs to.
shot 1 first possession of the game, coming off the PnR Durant gives him space, he knocks down the shot(that's with 5 second on the shotclock)
shot 2 driving to the paint in transition gets blocked from behind
shot 3 penetration all the way to the rim... good shot just misses the it with the left hand
shot 4 penetration to the rim, makes the layup
TO1: penetrates in the paint... gets caught in the air without an option to pass to... bad TO... needs to eliminate this
TO2: coming off the PnR, decides to pass to rolling Gobert but he doesn't look for the ball assuming Mitchell will shoot... miscommunication
shot 5 penetrates in the paint, puts his shoulder into the defender and creates enough space for a clean shot(floater) but misses it... not a great shot, but nothing egregious when you consider we had 8 seconds left in the shotclock
shot 6 eurostep in transition, fakes out Draymond, but gets blocked from behind by Curry
shot 7 miss from 3 in ISO vs Jerebko with 3 seconds left on the clock. The shot is wide open. Jerebko gets faked out of his shoes and doesn't even put a hand up.
shot 8 PnR, gets in the paint and is well defended by Thompson, throw a bad floatery shot vs contest.
------------ this is Q1^ I only see 1 shot that's clearly objectionable
shot 9 great penetration vs Iguodala, goes straight to the rim... just misses the layup with the left hand against late contest from Draymond
shot 10 ISO vs looney, gets in the paint, again creates enough space for uninterrupted floater, misses it but then gets his own rebound and scores
shot 11 see 10. scores the layup on the rebound from his own shot
TO3: gets the ball with 5 seconds on the clock at 25 feet away from the basket, drives and gets tied with Durant for jumpball
TO4: Thompson straight up strips him clean on a drive
shot 12 Misses a FT but gets the steal on the outlet pass, gets absolutely hammered from behind by Iggy... the refs swallow the whistle... this counts as a missed shot FFS.
shot 13 Spaces out to the corner on a transition, Ricky finds him... misses the open 3.
shot 14 Final seconds of the half, keeps the ball for final possession, creates a good shot with a step back 3 vs Thompson, misses
---------^literally zero complaints about his shots from me in Q2. Well... maybe the iso vs Looney could have been better shot elsewhere, but every primary scorer gets some of those possessions in every single game
shot 15 gets a free release off of a off-screen action with Gobert, gets wide open jumpshot from FT line, makes it
shot 16 gets cut off on a penetration by Thompson. Tries to find a teammate, noone's open and he gets stripped. I have no idea why this is counted as a shot. This is a turnover, not a shot.
shot 17 Iso vs Looney. Gets to the rim, gets bumped and fouled, no foul called... the shot is missed. He's looking at the refs with disgust.
shot 18 Wide open 3 from a hand off from Ingles... makes it
shot 19 Spaces to the corner in semi-transition. Ricky finds him for the open 3, misses!
shot 20 Driving layup in semi-transition after he beats his man on the catch. Met by Draymond at the rim. You can see him looking for someone to pass to, but noone is open. There are 3 players in the clogged paint around him, because both Favors and Gobert are in the paint and Ingles is covered on the perimeter. Misses the shot.
shot 21 Penetrates in the paint. Again uses his body well and creates a wide open floater from 6-7 feet, no contest from anybody... misses it.
------------------^this is Q3
shot 22 Open 3 in transition. You can see miscommunication between Jerebko and Livingston both pointing toward him. They don't know who should take him. Eventually Jerebko tries to cover him, Mitchell sees that he can get an open 3 and takes it with 18 seconds on the clock. Is this ideal? Probably not, but come on. If this one goes in we praise him for his awareness that he saw noone was picking him up and got a free shot out of it. I really don't have much of a problem with this one.
shot 23 WIDE OPEN catch and shoot 3p shot in transition. Misses it. He missed everything in transition in this game...
shot 24 WIDE OPEN catch and shoot 3 in semi-transition. Noone picked him up as a trailer again. Misses.
shot 25 We get the ball out of bounds with 1.2 seconds left on the shotclock. Misses and quick give and go 3.
TO5: beats Thompson off the dribble and gets in the paint, jumps to pass the ball but gets caught in the air and travels.
shot 26 WIDE OPEN catch and shoot 3 on the wing, misses.
TO6: bad TO, dribbles off his foot.
---------------this was Q4...
This is very far from a good game for Mitchell but his shot selection was the last thing to worry about. It's not the shots he takes... it's the fact that he's missing the shots that he should be taking that's troubling.
If people don't want him to be taking 90% of those shots they should not want him to be in the game altogether, because they are good shots and if it's not him taking them, it should be someone else taking them. Also... some of his TOs are preventable and he should work on not jumping without clear plan.
