It feels like ages since I’ve been baited into a really silly argument on Jazzfanz, so I guess I’ll bite on this one. Your argument has already been torn to shreds by other posters who have done so far more eloquently than I can, but hey, the more the merrier, right?
First of all, quit comparing Mitchell’s playoff series as a rookie or 2nd year player to that of a veteran project like Niang. If you searched the internet in it’s entirety, could you possibly find a more apples-to-oranges type of argument? Mitchell was a young player who was the centerpiece of our team. He literally had the expectations of an entire franchise thrust upon his shoulders and if memory serves me correctly, didn’t he manage to rise to the occasion and carry his team to a playoff victory over a favored OKC squad featuring Westbrook and Paul George? Are we really comparing a guy with a playoff scoring average of around 35ppg to Georges Niang??
As was already mentioned, Niang basically fails every metric necessary to be considered an elite shooter- be it in his regular season performance or playoffs. He can’t get his shot off quickly (a hallmark trait of elite shooters), cannot create his own shot in any manner, is abysmal shooting off the dribble, can’t get to the rack when the jumper isn’t falling, can’t get to the foul line, and so on and so on. Niang has ONE NBA skillset: He can knock down 3 pointers at a decent rate when the Defense is cheating over to another player, leaving him open to take an uncontested shot. That is the beginning, middle, and end of the list of things Niang does well.
Probably worse than all of that is the fact that him returning to this team only serves as a huge roadblock to the development of other players who might actually possess a variety of NBA skills that can be developed. I don’t know what this “Holistic Approach” is that you take when evaluating players but you might want to take a holistic approach towards reviewing your holistic approach because it’s complete ****.