Well, there’s a long answer and a short answer. The short answer is basically, he’s him. But that’s not giving his game the respect it deserves. In this article, we will take a look at how Donovan has become a scoring machine. So strap in, because it’s Spida time.
Firstly, in order to understand how he gets his buckets, we need to know why he takes the shots he does. Donovan isn’t overly tall for an NBA guard, standing at 6′ 2″, but his insanely long wingspan helps a lot. In fact, that’s how he got the name Spida. With his 6′ 10″ wingspan, Donovan is able to perform a move that Cavs fans have come to love. With a defender right in his face, Donovan will wait for his defender to commit to one side before he stops his dribble and brings the ball up high. At the same time, he begins his first step by going the opposite way his defender has already committed to. This gives him a clean and open look for a floater. He often uses this move against similarly sized defenders if the team needs a guaranteed bucket.
If there is defensive help, Donovan has been known to use one of his big men to help. After side-stepping the first opponent, Spida may come face-to-face with an opposing center. In this case, he is known to have passed the ball to Evan Mobley, who was cutting across the baseline.
Another go-to shot from Donovan is his 3pt shot from the wing off the dribble. He will get the inbound and simply go to his spot, then drain one in your face. Donovan’s quick first step leaves the defender absolutely bamboozled. Combined with his killer stepback, the defenders are only given a fraction of a second to react and even then, it’s too late. Donovan’s range from three is unreal, as we have seen him hit logo threes. This season, Donovan leads the league so far in made three pointers and is the first person to reach triple digits this season with 100 3pt made.
Now you may be thinking, for a guard, he is relatively small, so why not just body him up? Well, it would be like trying to move a tree stump with no machines. Spida is 215 lbs of pure muscle and skill. He will bump off you and hit a crazy layup before you can do anything about it. Well, if he is so strong, maybe he isn’t fast, right? Wrong. Donovan is one of the fastest players in the NBA right now.
Once you put all of this together, you get a walking bucket that seems to knock down every shot. Donovan Mitchell is one of those players who will have defenses on their knees, praying for mercy. He will undoubtedly go down as one of the hardest players to guard. And the funny thing is, he has horrible eyesight. Donovan has remarked that he is “just shooting at three rims and trying to figure it out” (Donovan Mitchell). So he is doing all this while seeing multiple rims! It’s pretty much confirmed that he has some kind of spidey sense.
The post How is Donovan Mitchell Scoring So Much? appeared first on Cleveland Sports Talk .