It was a night to forget for Utah Jazz star Donovan Mitchell on Friday as his team fell to the Philadelphia 76ers, 113-107, after a horrible shooting night for the second-year man. After the game, teammate Rudy Gobert called out Mitchell, saying that the young guard needs to work on his in-game decision-making.
Mitchell dropped a game-high 31 points on Friday, but needed 35 attempts from the field (1-of-11 from deep) to reach this mark. He also had zero assists on the evening, which further belabors Gobert's point.
Gobert: "I think he needs to be aggressive. His number one strength is to get to the rim and make plays. He needs to learn to make the right decision at the right time. It’s not easy. The NBA is hard. It’s a tough league. He’s learning."
— Tim MacMahon (@espn_macmahon) November 17, 2018
To be clear, Gobert is not criticizing Mitchell's style of play here. In fact, the Jazz big man clearly states that in his mind, he believes that it is Mitchell's job to remain aggressive on the floor and actively look for his shots. Perhaps Gobert was pertaining to the youngster's poor shot selection on the evening, and may have been suggesting that moving the ball around (especially on such an “off” shooting night) would not be a bad idea for Mitchell.
For his part, Mitchell is no ball hog. In fact, he has upped his assists this term to 4.3 per contest compared to his 3.7 apg in his rookie campaign. He remains to have one of the highest usage rates in the entire league, and outings like this one tonight are inevitable. It is simply part of the process.
The Jazz are now 7-8 and are at the 12th spot in a highly-competitive Western Conference. The season is still young, but with so much talent in the West, there is very little room for error for Mitchell and the Jazz.
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