Why It Would Be Fine If the Utah Jazz Were to Trade Donovan Mitchell (and Perhaps He Would Learn This Lesson)
Utah Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell is “unsettled, unnerved” and “disappointed” by Quin Snyder resigning as the Jazz’s head coach, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. Forget the question of how much Mitchell should have a role in selecting the next head coach for the franchise. I’m fine if the Jazz were to trade him.
Mitchell isn’t a franchise player. (He hasn’t even made an all-NBA team and the teams for this year have been announced.) It’s been 18 years since an NBA team without a franchise player won a championship. Yet it seems clear that the Jazz have accommodated him several times.
I’m proud of Mitchell for speaking out on weighty matters, but he doesn’t deserve to have his butt kissed as it has been. (Do franchise players, either?)
Still, he remains difficult.
As an example of his difficulty, Mitchell didn’t just not pass as much as he could and should have to Jazz center Rudy Gobert. Mitchell didn’t even though he knows how well he and Gobert work together in the pick-and-roll. As he told Yahoo! Sports’ Chris Haynes before the issue of him not passing to Gobert intensified: “(David) Locke (the radio play-by-play voice of the Jazz) told me this, we’re top 5 in pick-and-roll…
