The Utah Jazz need to thank someone other than the members of the Denver Nuggets’ front office for Donovan Mitchell’s arrival.
Sure, the Nuggets made what now looks like an inexplicable draft-day trade, accepting Trey Lyles and Tyler Lydon, two power forwards, for the 21-year-old swingman. But, as it turns out, he might not have even been on the board at all if not for Chris Paul.
Mitchell, the story goes, was unsure whether he should hit the peace-out button after his sophomore season at Louisville. Paul helped steer him in the NBA’s direction, per the Houston Chronicle‘s Jonathan Feigen:
Though many might be surprised at how quickly Jazz rookie Donovan Mitchell has exceled, Rockets guard Chris Paul said he “absolutely” expected Mitchell’s rapid success when Mitchell was at his camp and advised him to make the jump to the NBA. . . .
He was thinking about going to school,” Paul said. “I told some of the people at CAA and Donovan, ‘You’d be crazy to go back to school.’
“What I want for him is to keep taking it one day at a time, don’t get ahead of yourself. He loves the game. He has a great work ethic. And he can play.”
Mitchell no doubt made the right decision by jumping to the pros—and not just because shit has since hit the fan with the Louisville basketball program. He’s averaging 17.7 points and 3.2 assists per game while putting down more than 37 percent of his three-pointers. He can be erratic and is prone to ill-advised shots. But the Jazz will live with his inexplicable pull-ups and mistakes out of the pick-and-roll when they’re scoring like a top-seven offense when he’s in the game, according to NBA.com.
Plus, Mitchell isn’t supposed to be a point guard. He’s best served in that off-guard slot. But the Jazz are using him as a primary ball-handler and distributor for long stretches at a time. And the experiment is working. Mitchell has very clearly been one of the four best rookies this season. Only Jayson Tatum and Ben Simmons are obviously better, and only OG Anunoby in Toronto has a case to be slotted ahead of Mitchell after.
The Jazz got a good one—a potential star late in the lottery. And, at least on some level, they have Chris Paul to thank for it.
