Donovan Mitchell’s Arc May Just Be Beginning

By extending his shooting range, the Jazz’s leading man has opened up a whole new world of possibilities for himself and his team

Donovan Mitchell arrived on Louisville’s campus in 2015 as one of the top 30 prospects in his high school class, but knowing he needed to improve his jumper to make it to the NBA. He played hard. He was a great athlete. “But he had a line-drive shot,” former Louisville coach Rick Pitino says.

Mitchell hit 25 percent of his 3s and 75 percent of his free throws as a freshman. Even when he made shots, they rattled around the rim. Pitino told Mitchell that all great shooters have high arcs on their shots. It’s simple geometry: When the ball approaches the rim from a higher angle, there’s more room for it to fall through. With a flat shot, the ball comes in from a lower angle, creating a tighter area for the ball to go through. Pitino showed Mitchell side-by-side video comparing the trajectory of his shot to the trajectories of Steph Curry and Damian Lillard, both of whom shoot moon balls that fly toward the ceiling after leaving their fingertips.

“My base was good. I had good form. I had good mechanics,” Mitchell says. “But my shot was flat.”

Pitino put him on a practice plan using a basketball shooting machine that rebounds and passes the ball back to you. A large net surrounds the rim, which forces players to put arc on their shot. Pitino told him to start shooting 15 feet away from the rim before stepping out deeper. Every single night, after classes and practice, Mitchell took jumper after jumper after jumper. He’d focus on the angle of his arms, the flex of his wrist, and how the ball felt coming off his fingers. Slowly but surely, he began stepping farther away from the rim, eventually making his way behind the 3-point line.

“It took a while but he got it,” Pitino says. As a sophomore, Mitchell improved to 35.4 percent from 3 and 80.6 percent from the line. For the first time since he was an underclassman in high school, he led his team in points, averaging 15.6 per game. Mitchell progressed enough to declare for the 2017 NBA draft. He rose up the rankings during the predraft process and was selected 13th by the Utah Jazz.

Mitchell was thrown into a lead role following the sudden departure of Gordon Hayward, who left for the Boston Celtics in free agency weeks after the draft. Though he thrived early, finishing a close second for 2018 Rookie of the Year, Mitchell was dubbed inconsistent. But he was merely learning. This season, he averaged a career-high 26 points and shot 39 percent on nine attempts per game from 3. Over his past 15 playoff games, he’s been even better, averaging 35 points while making 47 percent of his 10 attempts a game from 3. At 24 years old, Mitchell has become one of the NBA’s most lethal scorers.

“It opens up the floor,” Jazz head coach Quin Snyder says about Mitchell’s shooting ability. “We’ve had success being aggressive shooting the ball and getting to the rim. That’s who we are.”

Mitchell is unrecognizable compared to the player he was when Pitino recruited him at Brewster Academy in New Hampshire and the player he was when the Jazz scouted him at Louisville. It’s his recognition of his weaknesses and his desire to turn them into strengths that’s gotten him to this point, leading the Jazz to the NBA’s best record and their best chance at an NBA Finals in years. If the past is any indication of the future, this could be only the beginning of Mitchell’s emergence.

One of Mitchell’s focuses in preparation for this season was becoming even more like Steph and Dame. Mitchell had established himself as a threat from 3 over his first three seasons; now, he wanted to extend his range even farther.

“Where those guys shoot from way out, you gotta pick them up at half court,” Mitchell says. “It was just about creating a little bit of an advantage. It’s a longer closeout. It also creates more opportunities for my teammates to have driving lanes. If I’m farther out, they gotta come with me. And if they do that, I can get by them to get to the rim. It helps in different ways.”

Deep-range shooting strains a defense by forcing it to cover more ground away from the rim, and having to worry about a scorer every moment—whether they have the ball in their hands or not—can drain the defense’s energy.