Donovan Mitchell‘s emergence as a potential superstar allowed the Jazz to quickly move on from the loss of Gordon Hayward in free agency, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN examines in a post on Hayward’s return to Utah on Friday. Jazz GM Dennis Lindsey and coach Quin Snyder felt they could retool the roster and become a playoff contender again but had no idea Mitchell would emerge as a franchise player in his rookie year, Wojnarowski continues. Mitchell provides the Jazz with a selling point to recruit another star in free agency and he’s well on his way to a max contract extension in 2020, Wojnarowski adds.
We have more from the Northwest Division:
- Carmelo Anthony‘s season with the Thunder was a humbling experience, a high-ranking Rockets official told Tim MacMahon of ESPN. Anthony bristled at the thought of coming off the bench with OKC but is now at least tolerating a second-unit role with Houston. “Last year, I didn’t know what to expect coming into the situation,” Anthony told MacMahon. “It’s different when you’re clear on what is needed to be done or what you have to do or what’s needed of you. It’s a big difference.”
- Nuggets center Nikola Jokic was fined $25K for using “derogatory and offensive language” when discussing Bulls rookie center Wendell Carter, Sean Highkin of Dime Magazine tweets. Jokic made the comment after Denver’s 108-107 overtime victory on Wednesday.
- Floor spacing, 3-point shooting and defensive intensity have been areas of concern for the Jazz. The Thunder continue to deal with outside shooting woes. David Yapkowitz of Basketball Insiders takes a closer look at issues involving each Northwest club.
At the moment Donovan isn’t playing very well, no improvement from his rookie year, so he better start playing better if he wants a max contract… I know is only a small sample, but so far he has been very disappointing, same as Utah.
When someone has a great rookie year, you can’t expect linear growth on the second year. Tatum and Ben Simmons both didn’t improve much star wise neither.
He’s still averaging 22 a game. And rewane said it, you can’t expect linear growth after such an awesome year. He is getting a max.
Do you follow the team? Donovan is fighting a strained hamstring and a slightly sprained ankle. You might want to cut the kid a little slack.
Didn’t no saying no Homo was derogatory
This place has the worst grammar.
Long time reader first time caller. I had to make an account to say the wording on Jokic’s fine is misleading. Yes he said something dumb, but he wasn’t using it “against” Wendel. If anything it was a dumb way to enhance his compliment of him
That’s fair. I’ve tweaked the wording on that.
I wouldn’t say Jokic’s comment was “derogatory” towards WCJ