preface
The first year of his career playoffs led the team to beat the big three, sent each other a round trip; the third year of his career playoffs had a single 50+ performance; the fourth year of his career led the team to the first place in the league, contributing an average of 28.8 points, 5.1 rebounds and 4.6 assists per game in the playoffs, purely from this resume, can you guess who this player is? In fact, the player is Donovan Mitchell, who has been overlooked. Although from the data point of view, Mitchell looks like a superstar, but in fact he will never be compatible with the superstar. You simply can't take him as the core and lead the team to the championship.
Talent is limited and the upper limit is not high
To be honest, Mitchell in the rookie season is indeed amazing enough, and his play is indeed quite outstanding, but basketball is a sport that looks at talent after all, as a shooting guard, Mitchell's height is indeed a little shorter, Mitchell is only 1.91 meters tall, which is not high in the position of guard, and put in the position of the point guard is even shorter, looking at the history of the NBA, those who have a head and a face, who is not taller than 1.95 meters?
In fact, from Mitchell's four years of playoffs, you can see how obvious his short version is, in addition to facing Westbrook, Mitchell has been superior, he has encountered taller than his point guard, like Harden, Murray, like George and even the unknown Mann, these players have almost a good performance in the face of Mitchell, and his offensive style to break through as the main means, once at the critical moment, the other side of the interior Mitchell has to gamble three points, bet on the success rate of three points is far better than the killing, More importantly, his breakthrough did not have the same lethality as Wade, which also led to the Jazz's lack of availability at key moments, and eventually fell in the decider many times, such as the seventh game in 2020.
Mitchell's basic stats do look pretty good, but whenever it comes to the critical moment he always drops the chain, this kind of thing has happened again and again, and then some people say that the jazz's best player inside the line is Mitchell, if you don't let Mitchell play, is it going to let Gobert? That's exactly the problem, Mitchell's ability is not enough to lead a team to the championship, and his talent keeps him at MVP level. Truth be told, Mitchell did have some great moments in the playoffs, but there is still someone to fill the gap by removing him from the Jazz, and the Jazz want an outside player who can lead the team to a real change to the championship level, not an all-Star player like Mitchell.
The style of the ball is too unique, and there is no courage
The contradictions between the Utah Jazz this season are greater than in previous seasons, especially the contradiction between the two cores of the team, Mitchell and Gobert, which can be said to be visible to the naked eye, the two have almost no cooperation on the court, Gobert is tall and long-armed, if there is a person willing to feed him bread, I believe that Gobert can also help the Jazz score a lot of points, and Mitchell rarely connects with Gobert in his ability to break through, and this seems not to be impossible for him, but Mitchell's intention. Obvious big hits and small opportunities, he is not willing to pass the ball, and even prefers to force himself to dribble at the top of the arc for ten seconds to shoot three-point iron, rather than look at the players on the inside line, I have to say that Mitchell's mentality is likely to have problems.
Of all the outside players who can become superstars, none of them do not trust their teammates. Take Kobe Bryant as an example, as we all know, Kobe Bryant is a player who plays very well, and even multi-person packages he is not willing to pass to his teammates in the empty position, but this is Kobe Bryant in regular time, if he still chooses to trust his teammates at key moments, if he does not trust his teammates, there is no Artest Finals that arrow seals the throat, if he does not trust his teammates, there is no Fisher in the Finals to make the Magic team home silent, the real superstar can play alone, but when the pass does not care about his reputation, Obviously Mitchell couldn't do it. But it's not that he can't do it in ability, but he can't do it mentally, and he vents his resentment against his teammates on the court, so that the player with a small belly is doomed to a low ceiling.
As an outside player, it is normal to have a feeling of ups and downs, when you feel bad, you should pass the ball, instead of sticking the ball in your own hands, but this season, Mitchell still chooses to dribble and play hard in many of his own bad moments, what is the problem? I believe that only he himself knows, perhaps to compete with himself, or not to put the opponent in his eyes at all, such a brave and unscrupulous player, even if he brushes a good hand in the regular season, but the playoffs will definitely be the prototype, and it is understandable that he cannot break through the second round of the playoffs.
One statistic is very interesting, take this season, Trae Young sent 152 assists to Capela, while Mitchell only gave Gobert 151 passes, and the average number of passes to Gobert in a game is not even three times. Obviously not, this is definitely his intention, to be honest the two people seem to be really not very good at each other, continue to be together will only delay each other, Gobert needs a player who can play for him and play with him, and Mitchell needs a team that can let him release himself, it is clear that the Jazz are not suitable for him, they should play a little more team.
epilogue
To tell the truth, the Jazz after several years of observation has also found mitchell's clues, he really does not have the strength to become the core of a championship team, if it is unrealistic to rely on his ability to bring the Jazz to the top of the Finals, the Jazz should have planned early to re-establish a new core combination, and there are many teams outside looking forward to Mitchell's joining, since someone is willing to take over and sell a good price why not? Jazz management use their brains!