Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert have been one of the NBA’s premier partnerships over the course of the last few seasons, and they even led the Utah Jazz to the No. 1 seed last year.
Despite that, there are definitely times when it looks as though there is a lack of chemistry been the two on the court. A recent statistic even showed that Donovan Mitchell only passes to Rudy Gobert twice a game, which is a low amount.
Donovan Mitchell has recently addressed the statistic. He claimed that he makes “the right plays”, and pointed out that he and Rudy Gobert are No. 1 in terms of pick and roll efficiency, adding that they’re clearly doing “something correct on the offensive end”.
Donovan Mitchell's full response at shootaround this morning when he was asked about the number of times he passes to Rudy Gobert per game: pic.twitter.com/OTez0jURfz
— Andy Larsen (@andyblarsen) April 5, 2022
I mean, it’s a wild stat, I don’t know. I mean, we have the #1 offense, you know what I mean? So clearly, we’re doing something right as a group, as a team. At the end of the day, it’s Twitter, it’s social media, it is what it is. I’m not going to lie, I see it. I’m on Twitter or whatever, but I don’t think it has an effect on us, the group. I think it’s all for outside noise to talk about and speak about it.
I make the right plays, I know I do. Like, my teammates know I do. I’m not going to sit here, let that define who I am or whatever. Him and I — I only know this because Locke told me — we have the #1 pick and roll efficiency, so clearly we’re doing something correct on the offensive side. Like, yeah, I missed big ‘fella in the paint late game. It happens. People make mistakes.
But like I said, I wasn’t sitting at home thinking like, Oh man, I’m getting killed out here. You know, it happens. You know, it is what it is. And you know, you look to fix it and move forward, but you know, everybody’s going to point and nitpick things. And only the only thing you can do is control what you can and go out there and to be the best player you can be. And I think we have been doing that as a group. I’ve been doing that myself and look to get better.
It remains to be seen if there will be some sort of change to the Utah Jazz offensive scheme that would get Rudy Gobert some more touches in the paint in the future. The Utah Jazz are known for being a primarily 3PT shooting team, so it makes sense that they’re not looking to dump the ball in the interior to their big man.
Hopefully, we see Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert make a deep playoff run together as a duo. There’s no doubt that the Utah Jazz have faltered in the postseason in the past, but perhaps things will end up differently this season.
