Written By: J. J. Tabor
The Utah Jazz(35-11) are the number one team in the Western Conference. The Jazz lead the second-place Suns by three games with 27 left to play. The team has been thrown around in discussions for a myriad of player achievements. Quin Snyder is heading towards Coach of the Year. Jordan Clarkson is currently sitting atop the Sixth Man odds and deservedly so. Mike Conley, at 33 years of age, has earned his first All-Star nod.
Rudy Gobert is absolutely the gold standard of NBA defensive play and currently The Stifle Tower is also atop the odds maker list for for yet another Defensive Player of the Year award. The NBA’s best team through 45 games has garnered plenty of attention itself. Utah recently went through a stretch where it absolutely dismantled teams. They won 22 of 24 games with 20 of those by double digits. Yes that was twenty by double digits. In the same stretch, the Jazz went 19-1 against the spread. That is extremely rare but more impressively, Utah has done it exclusively as favorites.
So if you put up $100 per game on the Jazz in that 20 game run you would be sitting on $1,727.10. Their net rating(8.5) is tops in the NBA. They are the league’s only team that is among the top 5 in both offense and defense. Defensively, with Gobert leading the way, Utah has always been among the elite defensive teams. This year though they have embraced the three point shot. They shoot 43 three pointers a game(1st) and make 39.7%(2nd). They have dominated the standings, and at this point they are poised to take some individual hardware home too. My question: Where is their representative in the MVP race? A team this good has had someone at least placed in the discussion?
Right? Especially this year, where we’ve seen a minimum of six different players atop those same rankings. An obligatory write-in? As of the writing of this piece, Donovan Mitchell sits 10th among MVP candidates at 100 to 1. Mitchell, or Spida, as those who so affectionately call him, he sits at the fringe just above Durant with only 19 games played and just below Kawhi Leonard. The nba.com KIA MVP ladder has him listed 15th. The NBA’s website below Jimmy Butler, Joel Embiid and Kyrie Irving just to begin. They all do have something in common but it’s not that they are having a better year than the 2018 Slam Dunk Champ.
Those guys are having great years but with each at 31 games played and missing around 35% of their teams games, it is tough to argue MVP. Embiid has been phenomenal, but the Sixers are 8-2 since the All-Star break. The Heat are 22-24 on the year, but 18-13 when Butler is in the lineup. But are we giving the MVP to a player on a sub .500 team in a weaker Eastern Conference? Kyrie Irving has missed games due to “family and personal stuff,” and said that he “just needed a pause.” He violated the NBA’s health and safety protocol during that break, too, and was filmed at a party without a mask. James Harden is the reason the Nets have become the main threat kit of the East. LeBron James is also listed above and is going to miss at least 3 more weeks. That leaves Giannis, Dame Time, Stephen Curry, Luka Doncic, Nikola Jokic along with the aforementioned Leonard as the “frontrunners.”
LeBron James and Joel Embiid can get right back in the discussion if theIr respective teams get hot at the right moment. Donovan Mitchell has been an impact player since he came in as a rookie. He led a Jazz squad into the second round. A team that had just lost Gordon Hayward and had not been mentioned as playoff contenders. The team that Mitchell and Co. beat? The Paul George/Russell Westbrook/Carmelo Anthony Oklahoma City Thunder. Since then, the Jazz have qualified and were subsequently bounced after round one.
The 2018 Rockets were a tough draw, but everyone forgets Utah had Denver down 3-1 with Mitchell going off for a series average of 36 points 5 assists and 5 rebounds. That was without second leading scorer Bojan Bogdanovic. Nikola Jokic had a good series but he wasn’t even the best player on his team. Am I saying Mitchell is the MVP? Not yet. Antetokounmpo, Lillard, Harden and Jokic are the front runners in my opinion. Utah continues to win and Mitchell continues to come on strong. In their most recent dominant stretch(6 straight wins), here is Mitchell’s game by game breakdown:
19 points(50%) two rebounds, four assists, one steal
35 points(70.6%), two rebounds, seven assists, one steal
35 points(52.2%), five rebounds, six assists, one steal
27 points(61.1%), six rebounds, seven assists, one steal
30 points(57.9%), six rebounds, six assists, one steal
31 points(40.9%), five rebounds, six assists, three steals
42 points(53.3%), four rebounds, six assists, two steals
Some fans consider Mitchell a streaky, volume shooter. Couldn’t be more far from the truth. Only three players have averaged 20 ppg 3 assists and 1 steal: Larry Bird, LeBron James and Allen Iverson. Mitchell will become the fourth if he continues at this pace. In 25 minutes against the Cavaliers Monday night 7-14 and 4-7(57.1). His last 5 games from 3 read: 5-8, 5-8, 5-7, 5-7 and 4-7.
He is averaging 29.6 points per game for the month 6.3 assists 5.7 rebounds 1.1 blocks and 2.4 steals on 46.4 FG% 42.0 3P% and 89.0% from the free throw line. The Jazz will wrap up March with a Wednesday game with Memphis. The last time a Jazzman won the MVP was 1999 when Karl Malone won his second. The Mailman won his first in 1997. Bad news for the teams chasing Mitchell and the Jazz, they have the easiest schedule left. They get two games with the Lakers, two with Phoenix, two with Portland and one with Denver. Donovan Mitchell said last year that “this was just the beginning” for Jazz. It is safe to say he did not know how right he was.
Utah locking up the number one overall seed will go a long way in their chances to dethrone the Lakers or keep the Clippers from coming out of the West. The 39 point win over Cleveland was the 20th consecutive win at Vivant Smart Home Arena. With Chicago and Orlando coming up it looks like that streak may be extending towards the mid 20’s. A year ago, everyone was learning about the rift between Mitchell and Gobert. There was even an article that even said their relationship was “unsalvageable.”
Mitchell discovered recently that he was being awarded the NBA Cares Community Assist Award. He has pushed for social justice and education. He pledged $12 million to Greenwhich Day School. Donovan’s mother, Nicole worked there for more than a decade and it’s his and his sister Jordan’s alma mater. A scholarship fund has also been generated and he made sure his shoes were priced so that they were affordable for everyone at $100 a pair. He donated $300,000 from D.O.N. Issue 2 to support Jacob Blake’s educational needs. The acronym stands for Determination Over Negativity. Mitchell was also named to the inaugural board of the National Basketball Social Justice Coalition, which will use the game’s influence to raise awareness, educate and advocate for meaningful reform, and regularly gives back to those most in need through his SPIDACARES organization.
We will see if Donovan continues his level of play over the upcoming months. And the MVP talk? He belongs in the conversation for the NBA award but he his effort off the court has already made him one.