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How much should we be talking about Donovan?

Dali said:
Shoe deals and dunk contests do not fool me.

For me personally you have to at least have a consistent level of very good to great play to be a star. This is over many seasons also. One season where he was still somewhat inefficient is not a star. I think a lot of people jumped too early.
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Good points, all of them! Some yahoo's on this board had him in the HOF after one year! Now, don't get me wrong, we all like the kid! But the problem with basketball is that you can have tendencies or traits that have been ingrained in you from years of playing school yard ball, and in many cases you just can't get rid of them! Those school yard habits can make you uncoachable without you even knowing it....and you just can't stop from playing that way. I've seen it, you've seen it, you call a time out, tell the guy what he's doing wrong and he says: "I understand what your saying!" and then he goes back in the ball game and does the very same thing again!
 
carolinajazz said:
Good points, all of them! Some yahoo's on this board had him in the HOF after one year! Now, don't get me wrong, we all like the kid! But the problem with basketball is that you can have tendencies or traits that have been ingrained in you from years of playing school yard ball, and in many cases you just can't get rid of them! Those school yard habits can make you uncoachable without you even knowing it....and you just can't stop from playing that way. I've seen it, you've seen it, you call a time out, tell the guy what he's doing wrong and he says: "I understand what your saying!" and then he goes back in the ball game and does the very same thing again!
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Eye roll—we’ve watched Donovan adjust many times in a game. He will be fine.
 
oneye said:
Eye roll—we’ve watched Donovan adjust many times in a game. He will be fine.
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Then why does he CONTINUE to take ill-advised 3 point shots and/or drive the lane when there is nothing but defenders to block the shot, force a very difficult one, or throw the ball into the stands?
 
carolinajazz said:
Then why does he CONTINUE to take ill-advised 3 point shots and/or drive the lane when there is nothing but defenders to block the shot, force a very difficult one, or throw the ball into the stands?
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Most of his threes are not ill advised. They are very much encouraged by the coaches. Just because he is not shooting well does not mean they are bad shots. He does get himself into trouble driving in but that is the by product of being aggressive, which is what the coaches want him to do. He is our only offensive option that can create for himself. He is the main focus of the opposing defense. Often times there are 2 players on the court that the other team ignores when we are on offense.

When he starts to make his 3 point shot with more consistency he will be great. Mitchell is shooting 63% at the rim. That is a solid number, it could go up and probably will but that is still really good. Thats the same percentage Harden has shot at the rim for his career. It is much better than most players his size as well. Lillard for example shoots 56% at the rim. Irving shoots 60%. Also his turnover rate on drives is fairly low and a good number so you are nit picking something that is not a real issue.

Mitchell has improved his mid range game as well. He is shooting over 50% on 10-16 feet shots, which is up from 37% last year. His 16 feet to 3 point line shooting is up from 44% to 46%. Those are great numbers. So really he is just no hitting his 3 point shots like he was last year but he is still mostly taking good shots. His shot form is good and he will improve from 3.

If is going to become an elite player he needs to shoot well from 3. So he needs to keep taking those shots and working on his shot.
 
Ron Mexico said:
Most of his threes are not ill advised. They are very much encouraged by the coaches. Just because he is not shooting well does not mean they are bad shots. He does get himself into trouble driving in but that is the by product of being aggressive, which is what the coaches want him to do. He is our only offensive option that can create for himself. He is the main focus of the opposing defense. Often times there are 2 players on the court that the other team ignores when we are on offense.

When he starts to make his 3 point shot with more consistency he will be great. Mitchell is shooting 63% at the rim. That is a solid number, it could go up and probably will but that is still really good. Thats the same percentage Harden has shot at the rim for his career. It is much better than most players his size as well. Lillard for example shoots 56% at the rim. Irving shoots 60%. Also his turnover rate on drives is fairly low and a good number so you are nit picking something that is not a real issue.

Mitchell has improved his mid range game as well. He is shooting over 50% on 10-16 feet shots, which is up from 37% last year. His 16 feet to 3 point line shooting is up from 44% to 46%. Those are great numbers. So really he is just no hitting his 3 point shots like he was last year but he is still mostly taking good shots. His shot form is good and he will improve from 3.

If is going to become an elite player he needs to shoot well from 3. So he needs to keep taking those shots and working on his shot.
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I find it weird that basketball reference has Mitchell shooting 63% at the rim when basically every stat on nba.com has him nowhere near that number, but I agree with the post in general. He's an underrated mid range shooter and he just needs his 3pt shot to be serviceable again and he'll look much, much better.
 
Ron Mexico said:
He does get himself into trouble driving in but that is the by product of being aggressive, which is what the coaches want him to do. ... Mitchell is shooting 63% at the rim. That is a solid number, it could go up and probably will but that is still really good.
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Last season he was blocked 80 times, but got 30 and-1s to balance this. This season so far he's already been blocked 47 times, but only has 9 and-1s. Last season 42 dunks, this season only 10 dunks. His percentage is about the same but other indicators are that he is really struggling around the rim this year. Could it be the after-effects of his foot injury? This has been the case with other players with, or coming back from, leg injuries - Favors with his ITB and Burks after his ankle surgery both had poor percentages at the rim.
 
Ron Mexico said:
Most of his threes are not ill advised. They are very much encouraged by the coaches. Just because he is not shooting well does not mean they are bad shots.
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I'd say that depends on what you classify as "ill advised!" Just because a guy is wide open from 3 point land does not, in and of itself make it an "advised" shot! If he's a poor 3 point shooter than practically ANY 3 point shot for him is "ill-advised!"
Of course, if the shot clock is running down and a teammate throws him the ball with just a few ticks left on the 24 second clock then he has no choice but to chuck one up, generally speaking. If he's a fair 3 point shooter and there are 15 seconds left on the 24 second clock, even then a wide open 3 pointer might not be the best option! Reminds me of what Larry Brown once said on a sound bite directed at Allan Iverson as he was coming off the court from a time out. Larry said: "Allan! You see that shot you just took? We can get THAT shot ANYTIME we want! How about we show more patience and work for a better shot, huh?"
Mitchell has been taking "ill-advised" 3 point shots on a regular basis this year, and I suspect the coaches have told him so! Mitchell, right now is NOT a good 3 point shooter and he's taking them with way too much time left on the 24 second clock, and I doubt seriously that the coaches are happy about it and encouraging him to continue in his wayward course! Frankly, there are only about 3 guys that make "ill-advised" 3 pointers on a regular basis......and one of them is Steph Curry. You can figure out the other two.
I've been noticing in the box scores that the 3 point shooting from some games and team is atrocious! Enough to gag a magot!
 
Case in point....tonight! Raptors get blown off the court by the Spurs. Why? In part because they shot 6-30 from 3 point land!
 
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