History has proved many times that the sample at the beginning of the season is too small to boast too hard, but the performance of Donovan-Mitchell after joining the Cavaliers has been wild to an extent that cannot be ignored.
In the first three games of the season, Mitchell scored 30 points and became the first knight young pioneer team history. Mitchell scored 100 points and 21 assists in 3 games, becoming the first player in NBA history to score at least 100 points and 20 assists in the first 3 games of the new club.
In the fourth game of magic, Mitchell only scored 14 points in a downturn. However, after playing the Celtics, Mitchell and Lewell scored 41 points respectively, creating a score record for the Cavaliers after the young pioneer team history regular season, they also successfully paid tribute to James and Owen, who scored 40 + high scores in the fifth finals of 2016.
Today, he hit his previous favorite Knicks. Michelle cut 38 points and 12 assists without mercy. The Knight team scored 121 points, 70 of which were cut or assisted by Mitchell, and the Knight finished the turn.
“The floor of the Knight’s home is shaking. What Mitchell did was once done by James. This reversal was directed entirely by him,” Chris Fefor, the Knight’s accompanying reporter, wrote on social media.
Mitchell has become the new favorite of Cleveland. At 7 minutes 25 seconds in the fourth quarter, when Mitchell stood on freethrow line, the Knight’s home court sounded the uniform “MVP” slogan. It is no wonder that until now, the changes that Mitchell has brought to the Knight are obvious. The so-called black spots of his “not good at passing” and “defending colander” do not have any side effects on the Knight, when he was present, the Knight was a better team to attack and defend.
In the era of bikstav, Knights never touched the “strong attacking team. The combination of Garland + twin towers last season has begun to take shape, but the Knight’s offensive efficiency is still only ranked 20th. During the offseason, Knights operated big deals in exchange for Mitchell, in order to upgrade the attack. Mitchell’s performance so far has far exceeded expectations.
In the case of Garland’s absence from 5 games due to injury, Mitchell scored 32.2 points and 7.3 assists in the field, and hit 4.2 points with a hit rate of%. After Garland returns, Mitchell’s data will definitely decline, but the changes he brings to Knights will not disappear.
Seth Partnow, a data analysis expert, once said that the brainless increase of three-point shots can only make the team’s offensive efficiency change from bad to ordinary. In this era, if you want to play top-level attacks, the basket attack and three-point projection are indispensable. Knights have already had nearly 68 percent of the end efficiency of the basket. What restricts them from attacking the last step is not the number of three-point shots, but the efficiency. The arrival of Mitchell solved this problem almost perfectly.
Since the preseason, the Knight has become a three-point brigade. In the first six games of the regular season, the Knight increased his production without any change in the proportion of three-point shots, the third place in the 14.7 three-point league was in the average game, and the third-point hit rate was the first in the 42.7% league. These data are likely to decline in the future, but the Knight will not change again by relying on block demolition to create a large number of three-point goals.
This is an era of blocking and dismantling, but last season the Cavaliers had only 16.1 blocking and dismantling times in the case of Garland, and the 8th from the league. Knight block split scored only 0.85 points per round, tied for the 8th from the bottom. ESPN expert Kevin Pelton once complained that the Knight clearly had a ball holder and a cover wall, but there were so few blocks and splits. However, this season, the average number of block splits in the Knight court soared to the third place in the 24.8-time league, with a score of 0.97 points per round and the fifth place in the league.
The prerequisite for high-yield and efficient blocking and dismantling is that the outside line has the ability to hold the ball and throw the ball. Only when the ball holder has the ability to throw the ball can many changes be unlocked. However, last season, the Cavaliers’ average number of three points was 7.8 times to the 6th from the bottom, and it was different after Mitchell, who shot 6.2 times in the average number of three points, the average number of three points in the Knight field increased to 12.2 times and entered the top 10.
Regarding the doubts that Mitchell is not good at passing and defending big strainer, these two questions are scored.
In the jazz age, it can be seen from both senses and data that there is little direct cooperation between Mitchell and Gobel, that is, the efficiency of blocking and dismantling between the two can be comparable to the combination of Harden and enbide. Mitchell’s willingness and ability to pass the ball were criticized. After receive the ball, Gobel worked repeatedly, and the defect of not having the ability of dislocation and strong attack was also laughed.
Judging from the cooperation between Mitchell and the Knight’s twin towers in the early stage, it was really not that Mitchell deliberately did not pass the ball to Gobel, but he just didn’t have that instinct, habit and vision. When Mitchell holds the ball, he is used to attacking himself or looking for an outside shooter. In the knight, Mobi was the one who broke down most with Mitchell, but only 8 of the 44 assists of Mitchell were given to Mobi, of which only 2 of the 12 today. There was less cooperation between Mitchell and jarert-Allen, and only four of the 44 assists were given to Allen.
Mitchell had a chance to score after hitting the basket several times today, but he still chose to lay on the basket. This can’t be criticized by Michelle. The habit of playing basketball for many years cannot be changed overnight. His development organization itself is a halfway home. According to the passing data of Garland last season, he had to do the work of feeding the Knight’s twin towers.
As for Mitchell’s defense, the data showed that the percentage of players he defended hit exceeded 50%, and he did not fulfill his promise of “proving his defensive ability online” during the offseason, but at present, Mitchell’s defense will not drag the Knight’s defense efficiency. Mitchell was in Jazz last season. When he was present, Jazz lost more points in 100 rounds than he was not present. But in the Knight, the result reversed, and he lost less points in the Knight’s hundred rounds.
This is mainly because the Knight’s defensive configuration is good enough to hide Mitchell’s defensive loopholes. Big-name attackers need the team system to cover up the defensive loopholes, which is not a shame. Of course, when Garland returns to help him share the offensive pressure, he still has to devote more energy to the defensive end.
Knight starter present, Allen and mobry partner inside, one to protect the basket, one to sweep. However, the former jazz lacked a role of defending the rake, and Royce O’Neal was not tall enough. During the rotation time, Mitchell had only 16 minutes in total. There was neither Allen nor mobry around him. Most of the time he was present, there was a high-quality defender in the basket, the rotation time of Jazz Age was surrounded by the unemployed Whiteside and azubuk with limited ability. When the configuration is insufficient, Mitchell’s defensive vulnerability is extremely dazzling.
At present, Mitchell and the Knight are in the honeymoon period, which also has something to do with Garland’s first accidental injury. When Garland comes back, how do they allocate the ball power and balance the playing method, which needs further testing. There will definitely be a painful period at that time. After all, the shooting rate of the two players in receive the ball last season was only 35%, and there were minor defects in the aspect of no-ball attack. But in the long run, Mitchell and the Knight complement each other. The honeymoon period has just begun and there are still many good days in the future.