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What Can Donovan Mitchell Learn from Mike Conley?

No more first round and dones. No more playing the underdog role. No more “they need one more impact player.” No more “they’re a year or two away.” No more it’s just nice to be here. Ladies and gentlemen, the days of your friendly upstart Utah Jazz are over. Their time is now. And while the rest of the world is drooling and salivating over the leading roles Los Angeles acquired this offseason, the beehive state has quietly put together a squad capable of contention. Their bench is deep and flexible. Bojan Bogdonovic and Joe Ingles are going to be a handful for opposing wings. Bogdonovic was played like an All Star down the stretch last year. Rudi Gobert is coming off a scintillating FIBA World Cup in which he lead the French National Team to a victory over team USA. And last but not least old man Mike Conley and young gun Donovan Mitchell form the most important pairing in Jazz history since Stockton locked eyes with Malone.

Despite so much hype circling around other teams, the Jazz are tied for the NBA’s fourth highest win total projection at 53.5, according to actionnetwork.com and oddshark.com. That is the same amount of wins as the revived Clippers, and the Houston Rockets. It’s one more than last year’s second second seeded Nuggets, and three more than the NBA’s darling Lakers. That the Jazz were bounced from the playoffs rather easily by a disappointing Houston squad, and are now are tied for the best win total projection in the Western Conference is astounding. But it’s a promotion they rightfully deserve. Whether or not they can handle those expectations will be tied to the man whose talents pushed them remotely close to this conversation in the first place: Donovan Mitchell.

Mitchell’s development is the key to the Jazz’s season. We’ll probably say that for the next four or five years. And that’s because it’s wholeheartedly true. As of now Mitchell has the best supporting cast he’s ever had. But the upgrade in supporting cast alone won’t help Mitchell lead the Jazz to new heights. He, himself, is going to have to take a leap. Luckily for him, he finally has one thing he’s never had before: A mentor.

Mike Conley can still ball (WHEN HEALTHY!!!!). He also just turned 32 and his best days are behind him. And yet his impact on the Jazz could be exponentially bigger than any impact he’s ever had on any team. And he knows it. On ESPN’s Jalen and Jacoby, he said this about working with Donovan Mitchell:

“Well, I think it will be special, honestly, I think that he’s a really good dude. He’s really willing to learn. He wants to be the best at his position and one of the best players in the league.”

And then in an interview with HoopsHype.com he said this:

“It’s exciting to play next to a guy like Donovan because he’s truly a special player. When I say that, I mean his willingness to learn and his willingness to want to get better in so many different areas. He knows what he needs to improve on and he’s not afraid to attack those [aspects of his game]; he’s not going to ignore them and act like they don’t exist. He’s willing to say, “Hey, I need help learning how to shoot a floater,” or, “Hey, I need help reading this defense in pick-and-rolls,” or whatever it may be. If there’s something that he feels he needs to work on in that particular workout, he’s working and asking questions. With a guy like that, it’s easy to work with him. It’s easy to want to see him succeed and try to get the most out of him. I’m going to be here just trying to make the game a little bit easier on him, by not allowing teams to focus solely on him and hopefully giving him a little bit more legs down the stretch of long seasons.”

We have three super important but unimaginative developments happening in these quotes. One, Mike Conley realizes his role as a mentor to Mitchell. Two, he understands that Mitchell has the opportunity to be one of the best players in the league. And three, he realizes that Mitchell’s success is tied to the Jazz’s success.

Donovan Mitchell is one hell of a basketball player. And while it’s boring to compare him to a young Dwayne Wade, an egg looks like other eggs. Trees stand like other trees. And elephants move like other elephants. You get the point. There’s no reasonable backing for a hipster take on this one. He’s a step or two away from Wade reincarnated. What does he need to do to get there and how can Mike Conley help?

You probably watched Mitchell’s season highlights and said to yourself, “damn, this guy is good.” What you might not have noticed, or maybe you did, is that not one of those highlights included Mitchell assisting another teammate. Mitchell’s passing is an area of concern. Mitchell posted the 7th highest usage rate of any player in the league last season. Amongst the other six players, Donovan Mitchell had the 6th lowest AST%, beating out only Joel Embiid. Not to mention, the other five players all had AST% higher than 33%. Mitchell clocked in at a lowly 23.7%, which was good for 99th in the entire league. To form an elite basketball team you can’t have one player dominate the ball. I would offer a counter to that and say you can have an elite basketball team when one player dominates the ball. You just need that player to also get his teammates involved. Mitchell either didn’t have a good enough supporting cast to do that last year or he just straight up couldn’t do it. His AST% shows this. And so do his Estimated Wins Added. Mitchell’s EWA ranked 50th in the league last year at 8.7.

The thing is though that Mitchell has shown the ability to pass. He possesses a very good eye for cross court passes. And he makes instinctive passes all the time. He just needs to do it more often and make better decisions when he has the ball.

Donovan Michell’s hyper athleticism allows him to make sorcerer-like finishes. It also gets him in trouble. On the plays below Mitchell makes two tough finishes. It’s amazing. And he’s amazing. But plays like this don’t have to be so difficult. On the first play, Gobert is rolling wide open towards the basket for a dunk and Joe Ingles is spotting up wide open for a three. On the second, Gobert is again open underneath for a dunk, and there are three spot up shooters available for decent looks. Dropping a dime on either of these plays would have made Mitchell’s and the Jazz’s life so much easier. Despite ranking 10th in the league last year in 3P% the Jazz didn’t have a lot of lock down three point specialists. And perhaps that played a role in Donovan Mitchell’s decision making. But too often Mitchell’s drives turned into plays like the one below, with Mitchell attempting a tough finish while open players stood around him.

Attacking the rim is super important, but making smart decisions is just as important. Conley is perhaps the embodiment of that. Never an explosive athlete, Conley has always been adept at making the right play at precisely the right time. The man has a career TOV% of 12.9%. And the last two years has posted TOV%’s of less than 10%. Not to mention, last year he posted the second highest AST% of his career at 33.4%. Conley finds his teammates naturally within the flow of his own game. Like Mitchell he’s very good at creating penetration. Once the penetration is made, however, Conley is a much more efficient and reliable playmaker for others.

It’s a small but hard adjustment to make. But if Mitchell can steal some Conley-ness and turn some of his acrobatic finishes into wide open shots at the rim, or threes for his teammates, his passing numbers should sky rocket and so should the Jazz’s offensive efficiency. In fact, we’re already starting to see it come together for Mitchell this pre-season.

That’s two Mitchell drives and two wide open threes by Mike Conley. Of course, the new and improved court spacing helps. But Mitchell settling for these types of plays is a great sign of things to come.

Mitchell’s other necessary improvements also revolve around his efficiency. His TS% ranked a miserable 235th last year, which was narrowly squeezed between Wilson Chandler and Cedi Osman. His EFG% ranked 338th at 49.3%. And his PER ranked 91st at 17.26. Like… yikes. Some of that is a product of him being the only scorer on the Jazz with the ability to create his own shot. Replacing Ricky Rubio with Mike Conley, and adding Bojan Bogdonovic will help a lot. They are both knockdown shooters, and can make their own plays off the dribble.

But Mitchell will still have to learn to curb his high volume attack. Sharing the ball is something Donovan Mitchell has never had to do in his time in Utah. In his two years in the league so far Mitchell has averaged 18.5 shots per game, and averaged a 30.4% usage rate. That is an obscene amount of volume for a player who only has two years of experience. For reference, not even Russell Westbrook, the USG% King, hit 30% until his third season (age 22). He hovered around 25% in his first two. Sharing the ball sounds like an easy task, but it’s not. Just ask the Celtics last year. It’s a learned and developed trait. And it takes time and good chemistry to feel out the quirks. Donovan Mitchell is not going to be able to just walk onto the court this year and drop all of the tendencies he’s been building the last two years.

Luckily, Donovan Mitchell in now teamed with Mike Conley, who not only won the 2019 Sportsmanship Award but the Twyman Stokes Teammate of the Year Award too. He starts the offense. He swings the ball. He engages his teammates. And takes what he is given. Conley has never had a USG% over 26.3%. And his career average is 21.7%. All Mitchell needs to do is look over his shoulder at Conley to see how a proper basketball team is run. And if Mitchell can create a nice balancing act between being THE MAN and relying on his teammates he should become a far more efficient player. In order for the Jazz to reach their ceiling they’re going to need to feature a multi faceted attack. The less Russell Westbrook-like Mitchell is, and the more Conley-like he is the better.

Secretly I think the Jazz are the most interesting team this year. They have a lot of room to grow. If the Lakers and Clippers play the way they should this year, they will be legit contenders. We don’t really know how the Jazz should play? Or what their ceiling is. They’re still figuring it out. And Donovan Mitchell’s progression is the biggest cause for that unknown. Can he be a top 15 player? Can he be a top 10 player? We just don’t know yet. What we do know is that if he reaches those heights, Mike Conley will be a big reason why, on the court and between the ears. And if the Jazz somehow make the Finals, Mike Conley will deserve a lot of praise.