Bojan Bogdanovic's big open three-pointer missed and the Jazz ended all the journeys of the season. The Jazz's tactics were excellent, but it was a pity that Bojan failed to seize the opportunity. In fact, the key to the Jazz's first-round exit was that they didn't take their chances. Luka Doncic missed three games due to injury, and the Jazz were beaten 2-1, and when Doncic returned, the Jazz had no hope of winning.
The Jazz's regular season record in recent years has not been too bad, and two drafts have given them the main framework of the team, one is Rudy Gobert in 2013 and the other is Donovan Mitchell in 2017. Truth be told, what drove jazz management crazy the most was their win over Mitchell in 2017, when mitchell led the Jazz to the Thunder, which had Russell Westbrook, Paul George and Carmelo Anthony, in the playoffs that year. Later, in the 2020 playoffs, Mitchell had a crazy performance of averaging 36.3 points, 5 rebounds and 4.9 assists per game. So, the Jazz really looked for Mitchell.
However, Mitchell is a bit of a high-open-low-goer, and in six games in this year's playoffs, he can average 25.5 points, 4.3 rebounds and 5.7 assists per game, shooting 39.8% from the field and 20.8% from three-point range, and poor efficiency really can't help the Jazz achieve further breakthroughs. Even so, the Jazz didn't give up, and he was committed to building a team around Mitchell. Then, Mitchell should also complete a self-help. Admittedly, the Jazz have many problems, Gobert is weak and defensive, Mike Conley is a bit old, and Players such as Bojan are more functional. But as the star of the house, Mitchell's performance in the playoffs on 10-of-48 three-pointers is still unspeakable.
The Jazz are the league's three-point team, and their three-point tactics are relatively simple, using Gobert's cover, Mitchell, Conley, Bojan and others can complete the shot, so Gobert has 6.3 cover assists in the regular season, the highest in the league. But by the playoffs, Gobert's cover assists had dropped to 3.8, almost at the level of a cut. Facing the Lone Ranger's defense, the Jazz's offensive style of play after using Gobert's cover has no room to play, and the team loses normally.
Mitchell was the one who was most affected, who made just six big open three-point shots in six games in the playoffs, shooting 33.3 percent from the field, and 6 of 22 from the open three-point range, shooting 27.3 percent. Sixteen of the remaining 20 three-point shots were 2-4 feet away from the nearest defender and only 1 shot was shot, shooting 6.3 percent, while the remaining 4 were 0-2 feet from the nearest defender and also hit 1, shooting 25 percent. It is clear that Mitchell's shooting difficulty in the playoffs is also the defensive strategy of the Lone Ranger.
Failing to crack the Lone Ranger's defensive strategy is both the helplessness of Jazz coach Schneider and the problem of Mitchell, who has been the absolute core of the Jazz over the past few seasons, and he has unlimited firing rights on the offensive end, and Mitchell mainly eats the ball to attack, 16 of the 48 three-point shots in the playoffs this year are shots by catching the ball, and the other 32 are his own ball to complete the offense. This also creates a problem, the more the Lone Ranger is targeted to defend, the more Mitchell will choose to attack with the ball, which will reduce the efficiency of the attack, and only 20.8% of his 53 playoff goals are hit by assists by teammates, and the other 79.8% are completed by himself.
Therefore, what Mitchell needs to improve in the offseason is to give up some personal ball-holding offense, for Mitchell, who is not too good in height, it is often difficult to have a better shot in the way of personal ball-holding attack, and it may be necessary for Mitchell to have an essential improvement after strengthening the running position. In addition, Mitchell should also improve the offensive area, his three-point + interior play is really easy to target, increase the middle range shot and stability, but also change the Jazz's overall offense.
Text/Duncan's laugh