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It goes without saying that Utah Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell took the league by storm last season. Unfortunately, his efforts were not enough to win him Rookie of the Year honors.
However, Mitchell now has his sights set on the Mecca of NBA awards. According to Jody Genessy of the Deseret News, he is looking to become both league and finals MVP:
“My goal for my rookie season was some solid playing time and average eight points a game. That was the goal coming into the year, so to go from that to being a finalist for Rookie of the Year was great for me. At the end of the day, I'm not worried about that one. I can never win that award again. We've got MVP and try to win the Finals and other things we can win multiple times that I'm going to focus on.”
It is interesting to see that Mitchell had rather modest expectations going into his rookie campaign. Things could not have gone any differently as he quickly became their best player and the newfound savior of Utah. Needless to say, Mitchel now has high expectations for himself and the Jazz moving forward.
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There is certainly good reason for his confidence considering the strides they made last season. The Jazz were thought to be left in shambles with the departure of star small forward Gordon Hayward last year. However, the emergence of Mitchell and Utah's surprising playoff success has legitimized their status as a contender in the near future.
While his goals for a championship may be lofty at this point, the possibility of landing in the running for MVP is not too far-fetched. The Jazz rely heavily on Mitchell and he has proven to be more than capable of handling the workload. That said, he is poised to produce stellar numbers in his sophomore campaign.
