Although ranking the top 30 NBA players in today’s game is an incredibly difficult task, The Last Word on Pro Basketball staff has taken it on. Coming in at number 23 in the countdown is Utah Jazz shooting guard Donovan Mitchell.
Top 30 NBA Players
Number 23 – Donovan Mitchell
Donovan Mitchell played high school ball in New Milford, Connecticut at Canterbury High School. Mitchell committed to play basketball at Louisville University where he wore number 45 in honor of Michael Jordan. After a much-improved sophomore year at Louisville where Mitchell averaged 15.6 points, 2.7 assists, and 4.9 rebounds per game, Mitchell declared for the 2017 NBA Draft.
Mitchell was selected by the Denver Nuggets with the 13th pick in the 2017 NBA Draft and was then traded to the Utah Jazz for Trey Lyles and Tyler Lydon. Mitchell has now played three years for the Jazz, emerging as one of the best young players in the league.
Strengths
Donovan Mitchell is extremely athletic which allows his raw talent to dominate the game no matter the talent around him. Improving every year in the league so far, Mitchell went from 20.5 points per game his first season to 24.2 in 2019-20.
Mitchell also has grown tremendously as an overall shooter, increasing his true shooting to 56 percent this season. Becoming a better free throw, mid-range, and three-point shooter has allowed Mitchell to take his game to the next level at every point on the floor. Throughout his short career, Mitchell has the ability to take over a game in crunch time and has proven the ability to be the number one option in an NBA offense.
Weaknesses
Although Mitchell is a star in the making, any young star has flaws. While he has improved his shooting percentages in each of his seasons so far, his efficiency leaves much to be desired. Mitchell lags behind the NBA average in all shooting percentages. The only place Mitchell is above average is at the free-throw line, where he is slightly above average.
Additionally, Mitchell could be a better defender, especially on a Jazz team that lacks a lockdown defender in isolation. Mitchell did well in seasons one and two, averaging 3.75 Defensive Win-Shares per season. Although 2019-20 was a shortened season, Mitchell was on pace to finish below 3.0 for Defensive Win-Shares. Mitchell lost a step on the defensive side of the ball after a much higher usage rate in his third season as the clear number one option.
Career Accolades
Although Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell is still on his rookie deal, he holds a decent amount of accolades. Mitchell was First-Team All-ACC in 2017 at Louisville. In the NBA, Mitchell made the NBA All-Rookie First-Team in 2018 and also won the 2018 Slam Dunk Contest at the All-Star Game. Mitchell also was voted to his first All-Star Game in 2020 where he scored seven points in the game.
Last Word on Pro Basketball Ballots
We believe in full transparency in the top 30 NBA player rankings so we are going to disclose the ballots of our player rankings and where each contributor had each player ranked.
Tyler Marling – Site Manager – 25th
Chase Gage – Managing Editor – 21st
David Knight – Marketing Manager – 24th
Zack Kircher – Associate Editor – 27th
Matthew Waldman – Associate Editor – NR
David Ward – Author – 24th
Avinash Chauhan – Contributor – 26th
Adam Zigner – Contributor – 23rd
Albert Dadson – Contributor – 20th
Dylan Guest – Contributor – 24th
Raheem Bashir – Contributor – 27th
Nathan Levine – Contributor – 28th
Bill Huan – Contributor – 25th
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