Point God Donovan Mitchell

[LogGrad98]

This confirms what many of us already knew and wanted to see happen. This is why many of us felt Conley was redundant and did not add enough to the overall team dynamic to be worth what was paid for him at the time. Imagine if we had targeted a player like Jerami Grant (when he was actually get-able) and had him alongside Mitchell playing like this as the point GOD we knew he could be.

With Conley out, Point Donovan has been unleashed

63 points, 20 assists in two games is...a lot like the rest of the times Mitchell has started at PG.

www.slcdunk.com

If you wanted to include Mitchell’s performance against Charlotte — where Conley played just 20 minutes, leaving early with hamstring tightness — we’ve watched Mitchell average 31.0 points across three games along with 8.3 assists, 5.0 rebounds and shooting splits of 47.7/48.4/88.9 while acting as the team’s primary ball-handler and offensive initiator.

This isn’t much out of the ordinary at all. Throughout his career, Mitchell has started 42 games at point guard (out of 240 overall starts) due to injuries to Conley and Ricky Rubio. And some of Mitchell’s more memorable performances have come in those 42 games. Of the three times he’s reached his current regular season career-high of 46 points, two of them came in contests where Mitchell started at PG.

Overall, the games Mitchell has started at the point have yielded considerably better statistical outings from him and often better team success than when he’s played the two.

If Mitchell is performing like this long-term as the starting PG, and we could have paired him with a very solid 3&D wing instead of Conley, you have to wonder where we would be.


I am glad Conley is playing so well, but Mitchell as PG would have been best for our team in the long-run and, imphfo, we would be better built for the playoffs.

But either way, it is amazing how he steps up his game when it is required. Let's hope he keeps this up for our next stretch with Conley resting his leg. I want to see the win streak stay alive!

 

[Saint Cy of JFC]

The team has looked way better with Conley at PG, but Mitchell has done very well in his absence.

 

[KqWIN]

I don't think it fundamentally changes the way he gets his offense. PG is just a label and I think people make way too much out of nothing. According to some, he was already playing PG. In practice, it really doesn't matter what you call him. The real difference is that he gets the ball more and has more opportunities. That has it's pros and cons because Mike Conley has been playing great, but Mitchell is obviously a great player himself. An overload of Donovan Mitchell isn't bad when he's making good decisions, but it also isn't a bad think when he's sharing that burden with Conley when Conley is also playing well.

 

[LogGrad98]

Breaking down Donovan Mitchell’s passing wizardry

Donovan has been proving that he has all of the tools to be one of the league’s premier passers

www.slcdunk.com

We sometimes seem to forget that Donovan is only 24 years old. He leaped into stardom as a rookie, but that doesn’t mean that he doesn’t still have unrealized potential. He’s still getting better every year, and he still has plenty of room to grow. Don’t make the mistake of thinking he has reached a plateau. As he continues to grow as a player, and improve as a decision maker, he just might become one of the best passers in the game. Pair that with his lethal scoring, and you’ve got yourself one of the best offensive players in the NBA.

More on DMs passing. Good article.

 

[LogGrad98]

I don't think it fundamentally changes the way he gets his offense. PG is just a label and I think people make way too much out of nothing. According to some, he was already playing PG. In practice, it really doesn't matter what you call him. The real difference is that he gets the ball more and has more opportunities. That has it's pros and cons because Mike Conley has been playing great, but Mitchell is obviously a great player himself. An overload of Donovan Mitchell isn't bad when he's making good decisions, but it also isn't a bad think when he's sharing that burden with Conley when Conley is also playing well.

What it show is that DM, and the team, are much better when he is the primary ball handler. The name of the position doesn't matter as much as who is controlling the ball. And it shows we are better when that is DM.

 

[The Jazz Wonderbra]

The team has looked way better with Conley at PG, but Mitchell has done very well in his absence.

#emphasizethis!

 

[KqWIN]

What it show is that DM, and the team, are much better when he is the primary ball handler. The name of the position doesn't matter as much as who is controlling the ball. And it shows we are better when that is DM.

That was true last year when Mike Conley was trash. This year, everyone is playing well. We 're rolling everyone regardless if Mitchell, Conley, or Ingles is out. The team's offense has actually been better with Conley in the game than when Mitchell is PG. Obviously that has a lot to do with lineups and who the court is being shared with, but we're really destroying everyone with every non garbage lineup.

 

[The Jazz Wonderbra]

What it show is that DM, and the team, are much better when he is the primary ball handler. The name of the position doesn't matter as much as who is controlling the ball. And it shows we are better when that is DM.

I don't know that we are MUCH better with just Mitchell handling. He can get streaky. Having Conley shoot 12% like he did the first 20 games of last season (hyperbole) is worse than having Donovan. Having both as options makes us better.

If we had Jerami Grant then we would be better still. I get that, but we are the #1 team in the league yo. I think the dual point guard combo has had us terrorizing teams with 20 point blowouts. With JUST Mitchell the wins have been 10 point wins.

 

[JazzFever]

Donovan's numbers will always be gaudier playing PG, but it doesn't necessarily make the team better vs having Conley play point. This SLCDunk story makes the point well:

With Conley out, Point Donovan has been unleashed

63 points, 20 assists in two games is...a lot like the rest of the times Mitchell has started at PG.

www.slcdunk.com

Check out the part about his relative plus minus at SG vs PG

 

[slc]

Jazz are better with Conley at PG
Jazz need Conley back and healthy

 

[bigmike]

Are we really better with DM at PG?

Serious/not a snarky question, I'd be curious to know what the analytics say. I know DMs stats at PG are excellent but I'd be curious to see our team ORTG with Mike at PG and Donovan off the ball vs. Donovan at PG and Mike not in the lineup.

We could certainly use another lead ballhandler at some point, for depth if nothing else. Mike will probably miss 10-15 games a year as long as he's with us and asking Donovan to be our primary scorer and facilitate our offense for 36-38 minutes is taxing. He'll wear down.

 

[LogGrad98]

Donovan's numbers will always be gaudier playing PG, but it doesn't necessarily make the team better vs having Conley play point. This SLCDunk story makes the point well:

With Conley out, Point Donovan has been unleashed

63 points, 20 assists in two games is...a lot like the rest of the times Mitchell has started at PG.

www.slcdunk.com

Check out the part about his relative plus minus at SG vs PG

And check out the part about who he is playing with and the impact of being in the right 5-man unit.

 

[LogGrad98]

DM needs more time at PG. This is all with him being shoe-horned into SG when he is, and we are, better with him at PG. He just hasn't had enough time consistently there to establish his full PG identity because we keep trying to force him into a SG role. That is what all these articles show.

 

[fishonjazz]

DM needs more time at PG. This is all with him being shoe-horned into SG when he is, and we are, better with him at PG. He just hasn't had enough time consistently there to establish his full PG identity because we keep trying to force him into a SG role. That is what all these articles show.

That 33-9 number looks pretty good. I would be happy if that is record after 42 games this year.

And remember, that 33-9 record with Mitchell at point guard all happened while we were down a starter.

Maybe if he played point guard full time and we added another quality starter to take the place of the guy who was injured in these games then the record might be even better.

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[campaignist]

I've long thought he can be our Lilliard, so this is encouraging.

 

[LogGrad98]

That 33-9 number looks pretty good. I would be happy if that is record after 42 games this year.

And remember, that 33-9 record with Mitchell at point guard all happened while we were down a starter.

Maybe if he played point guard full time and we added another quality starter to take the place of the guy who was injured in these games then the record might be even better.

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That was my thought exactly. Imagine him in that role with a big 3&D wing like a Grant in the role Grant played in Denver, with Royce off the bench, or even at the 2.

Mitchell - Royce - Grant (-type player) - Bojan - Gobert

Ingles - Favors - Clarkson

That is a scary starting 5, especially considering how Mitchell has performed as the PG in the past.

I am excited for where this team is now, no doubt, and I am very happy that Conley has found his stride and is obviously helping us win. I just think something like this would take us one step higher, peg us as a favorite, not just a dark-horse contender who is expected to exit in the WCF because we don't have the big athletic body to put in front of Lebron/Kawhi/George etc.

 

[Ron Mexico]

Mitchell has been the PG all season though. He has stepped up lately though, when the team needs more from him. He has done that most of his career here.

 

[fishonjazz]

Mitchell has been the PG all season though. He has stepped up lately though, when the team needs more from him. He has done that most of his career here.

He just seems to play better when his backcourt mate (we won't call this player a point guard or shooting guard) is injured and the team record coincidentally improves at the exact same time.

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[Ron Mexico]

He just seems to play better when his backcourt mate (we won't call this player a point guard or shooting guard) is injured and the team record coincidentally improves at the exact same time.

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He definitely steps up. This year the team is playing well and it's more of the usual, winning. Last year Conley wasn't playing well the first half of the year, then we had our easiest part of our schedule. But there's no doubt Conley has made us much better this year. We are missing him, but we've fought hard and won still. Our offense isn't nearly as good without him.

We also won this year without Mitchell, but I know he's really good and very important to our team.

 

[gandalfe]

If Mitchell is performing like this long-term as the starting PG, and we could have paired him with a very solid 3&D wing instead of Conley, you have to wonder where we would be.

Who knows, maybe we could even have the best record in the league...