For NBA fans, Donovan Mitchell of the Utah Jazz has been a surprising revelation. Who knew that a 13th overall pick would help lead his team to the playoffs? Yet, for NBA players or executives themselves, they already knew of Mitchell's potential as early as the pre-draft workouts. Recently, Josh Hart of the Los Angeles Lakers recalled guarding him.
Via Twitter, Hart said that he couldn't do anything to stop Mitchell doing the pre-draft workouts:
No one killed me during predraft workouts last year….but there wasn’t s*** I could do against him that day. After that workout I know he was a lottery pick https://t.co/2DveVaahL8
— Josh Hart (@joshhart) May 8, 2018
His tweet was a response to Tim Bontemps of The Washington Post, who reported how the Jazz were impressed by Mitchell's talents. David Locke, Jazz's radio play-by-play announcer recalled the Mitchell-Hart matchup:
“He was going up against Josh Hart, and he’s really good,” said David Locke, the Jazz’s radio play-by-play man, who was in attendance. “So that was the first thing. You were watching Josh Hart and thinking to yourself, ‘Wow, this kid’s good.’ And then, ‘Holy smokes, [Donovan] was great.’
Jazz general manager Dennis Lindsey, for his part, knew he was witnessing great talent right in front of him:
“I’m not even sure the kid knew that he was performing to the degree that he was performing,” Lindsey said with a smile. “Look, workouts are workouts. Three-on-three is not the same basketball as five-on-five . . . [but] I think as much as anything it gave us some confirmation that a few things that we were picking up live and on video and statistically, you know he showed that not only was he a good player but that he was almost growing by the day.”
Unfortunately, on Tuesday night, Mitchell had to be carried to the locker room after a scary injury took place.