A closer look at Mitchell’s poor performance on Friday against the Suns.
Cleveland Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell has struggled since initially injuring his groin earlier this month. In the five games since, he’s averaging 17.8 points on .292/.159/.929 shooting splits. That is far from his usual standard of play.
Friday’s loss to the Phoenix Suns was his worst showing of the group. He put up just seven points on 2-18 shooting. That isn’t going to get it done for a team that desperately needs someone to step up during this losing streak.
Mitchell has taken the blame for these poor showings, but it’s worth taking a look back to see what has led to them. Is this something that the Cavs should be worried about with the playoffs less than a month away?
The short answer is no. He’s getting decent looks, the shots just aren’t falling. The poor showing in Phoenix is a good example of this.
The first thing to look at is where Mitchell got his shots in Friday’s loss.
via nba.com
Two things immediately stand out from this shot chart. One, that’s a lot of missed jumpers. Two, he was able to get inside the paint for seven attempts, but only converted two of them.
Settling for jumpers and not being able to finish around the rim can be a sign of someone struggling with an injury. We saw this at the end of last season when Mitchell was trying to play through a hurt knee. Then, he was overly reliant on his outside shot because he didn’t have his typical athleticism off the dribble.
Although he only went 2-7 in the paint, it seemed like he was able to generate decent looks around the basket. Below are all of his shot attempts, including the two he was fouled on, that came in the paint.
Four of these nine attempts didn’t even hit the rim which is odd for any NBA player to do let alone one as skilled as Mitchell. However, going through these there wasn’t much to give me concern that he isn’t able to finish inside due to any physical limitation.
Mitchell wasn’t completely blowing by his defender on these looks, but he was creating enough space to convert these. On the season, he’s finishing 60% of his attempts at the rim and 48% between the free-throw line and restricted area. The majority of which were on looks like this. For some reason, he just couldn’t get any of them to fall in Phoenix.
We’ve seen Mitchell begin to press with his outside shot when things aren’t falling. Typically, this comes in the form of settling for pull-up threes. He’s been a historically good off-the-dribble three-point shooter even though he hasn’t been overly efficient this season on those looks (34.1% on 5.5 attempts per game). That is something that he certainly gave into on Friday. But by in large, most of his three-point shots were ones you’re okay with him taking.
Four of his eight three-point attempts were great looks that you absolutely want him taking. Three of these were catch-and-shoot attempts with one being a pull-up in transition after his defender sagged off. of him.
Normally, you’d expect him to can at least of few of these shots.
Another of the attempts was a little aggressive. Mitchell slipped a screen and had a little bit of daylight. Putting it on the floor and attacking the closeout would’ve been preferable, but you’ll live with this shot attempt from your All-NBA guard.
Then there were two looks that were completely forced and simply shouldn’t have happened. These are the ones that stand out when someone like Mitchell is having a rough game like this.
Additionally, there was one last bad transition three, but there was a minute left in what was at that point a double-digit game. If the Cavs were going to come back, they needed to get lucky and hit more than a few desperation threes.
It wasn’t a quality shot attempt, but it was understandable given the situation.
There were also two bad midrange misses. One was a floater from near the free-throw line. The other was a long two he took trying to draw a shooting foul on.
Friday was a bad night for Mitchell. However, the process he went through to miss 16 of his 18 attempts wasn’t horrible. Mitchell was mostly getting to where he wanted to on the floor. He just couldn’t convert like normal when he got there.
Every player goes through rough patches like this. Mitchell’s issues right now are just exaggerated given how poorly the Cavs are playing as a whole.
There shouldn’t be any long-term concerns about Mitchell. You never truly know, but from the outside, it doesn’t seem like this slump is due to lingering pain from his groin injury.
Mitchell has just gone cold at the wrong time. He’ll undoubtedly break out of it sooner rather than later.