Beyond the Arc
by Ben Fiore
Last night the Utah Jazz were eliminated by the Denver Nuggets from the playoffs.
The series was an electric 7 games and we saw an absolute battle between Donovan Mitchell of the Jazz and Jamal Murray of the Nuggets. Mitchell put it all out on the floor averaging 28 PPG in the series showing relentless consistency.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to get them through to the 2nd round, but I loved seeing the sportsmanship between Mitchell and Murray after the game.
Mitchell has proven to have been a perennially talent, but continues to get overshadowed and flies under the radar. Many questions are starting to arise about what the Jazz need to do to get over this hump they seemingly can’t conquer. Truly, I feel there are only two options because clearly Mitchell cannot do this alone.
The first solution is that the Jazz need to bring in more offensive help to that roster. Possibly, a package deal to send Conley and some role players somewhere for an additional offensive beast because Conley is clearly not the answer at PG.
I also feel they could get quite a bit for center Rudy Gobert. A lot of people would disagree with me there but I think Gobert is very overrated and defense isn’t really the priority anymore in Utah, they need someone to help Mitchell on the offensive end.
The second solution is to trade Mitchell. Nobody likes to hear that but you have to look after the player’s career. Whether he knows it yet or not, if the Jazz don’t add better pieces to help him he is going to need to go somewhere else. He’s too talented and too much of a leader to be hung out to dry. He belongs on a contender.
I would love to see him be added to a team like Philadelphia or Toronto where I could see him having an immediate impact and a change of pace moving to the eastern conference. I see him prospering somewhere else. That may not be the most popular decision, but if the Jazz front office doesn’t give him a better supporting cast, the man is going to collapse under all that pressure.
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