Donovan Mitchell Opens Up About His Mentality with Utah Jazz for Upcoming 2020-21 season

It must be quite a relief for the Utah Jazz to re-sign Donovan Mitchell. He has, without a doubt, become the face of their franchise and with good reason. Although his performance in the bubble wasn’t up to the mark, his matchup with the Denver Nuggets left everyone glued to their screens. They had just blown a 3-1 lead, which the Nuggets later pulled off again against the Clippers.

The 23-year-old had finished the season averaging 24 points, 4.3 assists, and 4.4 rebounds along with 44.9% shooting. But just in the postseason’s first round of playoffs, he averaged a whopping 36.3 points and 4.9 assists with 52.5% shooting. And the highlight of the games were two of his 50 point performances. However, the Jazz fell short, and the Nuggets were the ones who ascended to the second round.

There were plenty of rumors about Mitchell wanting to join another team, probably one that would give the All-Star a championship to add to his resume. But his announcement to stay has given the franchise more hope to go deeper in the playoffs next season.

What mentality is Mitchell going with as he stays with the Utah Jazz?

According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, Mitchell has agreed to a five-year maximum rookie extension which is worth $195 million. There are also reports that he has a player option in his fourth year.

With the business side all settled, Eric Walden of The Salt Lake Tribune shed light on what Mitchell’s thoughts are about how the team plans to do something meaningful this time.

“We have good pieces to make a real push for this thing,” Mitchell said. “… We blew a 3-1 lead [in the playoffs] this year. I look at it as we need to find a way to get over that hump in the first round and find a way to push and get to a championship. That’s really on the forefront of my brain.”

There is one downfall to re-signing Donovan. They might risk not being able to afford to give their second-best player, Rudy Gobert, his extension. Do you think that signing Mitchell first instead of Gobert was the wiser decision? And is building their roster around Mitchell going to get them a title?