Samson Folk takes a deep dive into the start of Davion Mitchell’s season and details how the Raptors guard is finding his foothold in the NBA.
The big, sexy, minutes winner for the Raptors so far this season? Mitchell, who the Raptors have been nearly 17 points per possession better with on the court. A meaningful positive on offense, and an overwhelming positive on the defensive end.
First and foremost, his press defense is essential to one of the NBA’s highest pressing teams (4th in the NBA in average pickup point as of Nov. 21st) and it’s easy to see why the Raptors are able to force teams to shoot worse, turn the ball over more, and foul less when he’s on the floor. He corrals ball handlers and funnels them to less dangerous spaces of the floor as the primary defender, his deny defense has been super bothersome, and he is by far the best on the roster at controlling drives with his closeouts.
On offense it’s true that he’s struggled to shoot it from downtown, but he’s managed to contribute in other ways. Most importantly, as of Nov. 21st, the Mitchell-Poeltl pick n’ roll was the 6th most effective in the NBA – he’s found a really good pick n’ roll partner.
While it’s true that Poeltl can kind of turn any guard into a successful pick n’ roll player — he carves out too much space as a screener and is just too damn good as a roller — but Mitchell has tuned in his cadence to Poeltl’s and works hard to find him. Poeltl has never been this emphasized as a roller in his whole career, and Mitchell is a big part of that.
Mitchell also pushes the ball hard up court to search for more opportunities for his teammates, and moves off the ball pretty quickly. While he’s been underwhelming as a scorer, this Raptors team needs a lot of possessions to go to developing players. Mitchell’s role will never be as a scorer, and the fact that he isn’t taking this vacuum as an opportunity to call his number, but instead to get the ball to the Raptors young guns? That’s great. It also projects pretty well for when the Raptors are healthy and Mitchell slides back into a more muted role.
Anyway, all that plus more in the video, hope you enjoy it.
Have a blessed day.
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