Included are some Donovan Mitchell playmaking highlights from last season.
Since he came into the league, Donovan Mitchell has remained one of the best SGs in the league, and has always had a point guard next to him. Ricky Rubio, Mike Conley, and now Darius Garland have filled that role, as although Mitchell is very high usage guard, he’s a score-first type of player and was quite turnover prone earlier into his career.
Last season, however, he averaged 6.1 APG, the highest of his career, with only 2.8 TO per game. Most notably, in the 15 game stretch following Darius Garland’s jaw injury, he averaged 7.9 APG on 2.9 TPG.
The point of all this? Donovan Mitchell has progressed past the need for a point guard.
Rusty Buckets made a very good video about the death of the power forward position, and in that video he theorized that the shooting guard position is next. High usage guards who don’t provide much other than scoring are becoming more and more rare, and the reason is a lot of them became point guards. After CP3’s departure, James Harden became a point guard. Jamal Murray was drafted as a shooting guard, but eventually moved to PG. Even Devin Booker ran point guard for the Suns last season, and while that didn’t end well, his playmaking still improved dramatically for someone who’s never played PG. Skilled isolation creators with good passing skills can and tend to make the transition from SG to PG, and Donovan Mitchell has shown that he can make that transition.
This isn’t to say DG needs to be traded, or that the fit won’t work. But if your hang up for moving DG is “DM still needs a point guard,” I wouldn’t be too worried about that. It may not be pretty at first, and he’ll definitely have to get used to being a primary playmaker, but it’s clear to me that Mitchell can handle running an offense without a playmaker next to him. It might also help with the size problem, as although Mitchell has improved as a defender from his Utah days, he’s still an undersized guard, and Garland definitely does not help with that.
TL;DR: Donovan Mitchell CAN be a point guard.
Donovan Mitchell has progressed past the need for a point guard.
byu/BalanceCandid5179 inclevelandcavs
4 comments
For the people that are going to comment without reading, once again I am NOT saying the fit with DG can’t/won’t work, or that DG needs to be traded. I’m just saying if your hang up around trading DG is “DM needs a point guard” that’s not true, and he could definitely make that transition from SG to PG. A lot of SGs have done it, and he’s a skilled enough playmaker to do it as well.
I absolutely love DG, he’s been my favorite player for a couple years now.
But I know that his trade is coming within the next year or two. The Cavs FO will obviously try and frame it like they are excited to run it back (to an extent I believe them).
The reality is that there were no quality options for a DG trade. In the future that will not always be the case.
I’d expect DM to be running point eventually. Most likely with Strus, a wing from DG trade, Mobley, and Allen (or another wing if JA is traded).
I tend to agree with your thoughts here, OP
I believe the best was to fully unlock Donovan, who is by far our best player, is to have him running the offense full time. I don’t see a lot to be gained from having him playing off ball. He becomes a better facilitator in the process. It also alleviates the size issue that will basically always exist when our SG is 6’1
DG and Don can and do work together. I think a better offensive system will make it look better than it has in the past. And having DG to run the offense when Don sits is a great thing to have.
BUT Darius is almost too good of a player for what we need him to be next to Donovan. The team would probably be better served if we can turn DG into a high caliber wing, and then hav a solid but not DG-level bench PG to run the offense when Donovan sits, someone like a Tyus Jones level player.
You are misconstruing passing with running an offense. Him and Devin Booker go about scoring differently but they are extremely similar players. There may not be 2 star players more similar than DM and DB. That being said this is not the first time Devin Booker ran PG like you said in the OP. Devin ran PG for about half his career and most of the seasons he had pre-bubble, which not coincidentally coincided with the Suns being absolute ass until they handed the offense to Rubio and looked infinitely better. Donovan has ran PG before and the Jazz pivoted because he sucked at it and nothings changed. He is a score first player who in short burst if he focus’ can run an offense but he will eventually go back to his nature which is to try and score every time he touches the ball. The playoffs are a shining example of that with Garland a shell of himself he was forced to run the offense. All he did was try to score and every role player on the team was terrible because they were completely disengaged from the offense. Giving the offense to DM is like giving the offense to Kyrie and that has been consistently a disaster Kyrie’s entire career because KYrie and Donovan play the same way.