5 Reasons Why Donovan Mitchell is the NBA Rookie of the Year

Donovan Mitchell has taken the NBA by storm this season. Here are some reasons why he should be named the Rookie of the Year.

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Cardinal Forever Donovan Mitchell came into the NBA as a fringe lottery pick, being drafted by the Denver Nuggets, and immediately traded to the Utah Jazz. After a relatively slow start, Mitchell scored 28, 25, and 17 against playoff teams Portland, Toronto and Houston, respectively. After one more game of coming off the bench, Mitchell became a starter, starting the rest of the games he dressed for. The story to follow was one no one, not even Mitchell himself, expected.

Mitchell averaged 20.5 ppg on 44% shooting and 34% from 3, 3.7 assists and 3.7 rebounds per game. He led his Utah Jazz squad to the 5th seed in the Western Conference, and a series victory over the NBA’s newest super team the Oklahoma City Thunder, before being taken down by the Houston Rockets.

Throughout the playoffs Mitchell broke countless records, made numerous plays that will go down in Utah Jazz history, and cemented his status as an NBA superstar.

This season, the ROY award is down to Donovan and 76ers “rookie,” Ben Simmons, as well as Celtics Rookie Jason Tatum. Most of the focus has been on the 76ers and how they “trusted the process” and found themselves in the playoffs again. That doesn’t matter. What Donovan Mitchell did in the playoffs may never be replicated by rookie again. Will that have impact in the voting? We’d like to hope so! The Rookie of year candidates are down to the final three, but most seem to believe that the race is strictly between Mitchell and Simmons.

I’m here to tell you why Donovan clearly deserves the award over Ben Simmons and Jayson Tatum (I think we can all agree him being a finalist is just a formality).

#1: Donovan is an actual rookie

In college sports, there is a HUGE difference between a redshirt Freshman and a true freshman. So far, no true freshman has ever won the Heisman. While it’s impressive that redshirt freshmen have won the award, they still had a whole year to learn the system whether they were playing in games or not.

Donovan was drafted in the 2017 draft, while Ben Simmons was drafted in the 2016 draft. Simmons has been a part of the 76ers system for almost 2 entire years. He played in the summer league in 2016 and following an injury prior to the season, he sat out the entire year. However, Simmons was still around the Sixers organization during his rehab process. He was in meetings with coaches and his teammates, and a had full season to breakdown film, helping him to learn what it meant to play at a high level in the NBA.

Simmons has had a great season, don’t get me wrong, but the NBA has it wrong. Ben Simmons should not be considered a rookie. If Simmons had followed a similar path of someone like Ricky Rubio, who after being drafted in 2009, didn’t actually join the Timberwolves until 2011, then he would be a rookie. However, that’s not the case.

There have been a few players who have missed their first season in the NBA due to injury or other circumstances and have gone on to win the NBA Rookie of the Year award in their second season, most notably Blake Griffin, however that shouldn’t matter.

A rookie, as defined by Donovan Mitchell is defined as “an athlete playing his or her first season as a member of a professional sports team.”

With that being the definition, unfortunately Ben Simmons doesn’t fit that. Just ask the Boston fan base.

https://twitter.com/theScore/status/991153410870300673

#2: Donovan is a better shooter

When you take out Donovan’s 3-point numbers and both players made dunks, Donovan shot 47.5% from non-dunk 2-pointers and Ben Simmons shot 46.6%. While this is not a huge difference, it shows Donovan shoots the ball better than Ben Simmons. Something I think the majority of us already knew.

Also, Ben Simmons hasn’t made a 3-point shot all year. At this same time, Donovan Mitchell broke the rookie record for 3’s made in a season with 187 and that was good for 16th in the NBA this season.

To put how bad Ben Simmons is from beyond the arc, let’s compare him to other players around the league:

• Thomas Bryant (LAL): 1-10
• Caleb Swanigan (POR): 1-8
• Larry Nance Jr. (CLE): 2-12
• 2010-2011 ROY Blake Griffin: 7-24
• Ben Simmons: 0-11

Even Joel Embiid went 66-214 from behind the arc, and he’s over 7 feet tall!

Not to mention, Simmons is terrible from behind the free throw line. Simmons shot 56% from the stripe to Mitchell’s 80.5%. For two guys who both like to drive to the basketball and get fouled a lot, Mitchell wins again.

The shooting numbers from Simmons can’t be ignored. Those were on full display during the playoff series with the Boston Celtics, as during both game one and game two, Simmons sat on the bench as the game was in crunch time. Regardless of whether it’s been the defense of Boston, or just some of Simmons’ flaws finally being exposed, going -44 in a playoff series is horrific.

Like we saw with Rajon Rondo back in the Celtics run to the finals and even throughout his career, opposing defenses can back off of him because he is no threat to score from outside.

Reason #3: Donovan is a better scorer

This season, Donovan Mitchell scored over 20 points in 46 of his 79 games. As for Ben Simmons, he only scored over 20 points in 20 of his 82 regular season games. Simmons only had two 30+ point games to Donovan’s 7, and Donovan scored over 40 in two games this season, something Simmons failed to do.

Mitchell is now one of seven active players in the NBA to have a 40-point game during their rookie season.

What’s crazier? He is now one of four players to do it multiple times in the 3-point era, joining Hall of Famers Michael Jordan, Allen Iverson, and current Piston Blake Griffin.

Donovan had 27 25-point games, good for 3rd best over the last 20 seasons.

(He had four more after this tweet was posted)

The triple doubles are hard to look past, don’t get me wrong, and honestly those are one of the flashiest things in today’s NBA. Simmons was a threat for the Sixers in a lot of areas that weren’t scoring; specifically rebounding, and passing.

Simmons finished the season with 12 triple doubles, which was the most in a season by a “rookie” and became the first player since Oscar Robertson to record five or more in a calendar month. While Oklahoma City’s Russell Westbrook proved last season on his way to averaging the first triple double since Oscar Robertson that you don’t need a “great” team to get triple doubles, Ben Simmons hasn’t had that problem.

While Mitchell is playing with the defensive player of the year, the Jazz’s second best player this season offensively was Joe Ingles, a guy who just a few years ago was cut out of training camp by the Los Angeles Clippers. Compare that to Joel Embiid, and even offensive weapons like Dario Saric, JJ Redick, and Robert Covington, and you can see a large reason Simmons has had so much success.

Also, Ben Simmons scored 1 point in a game during the playoffs. Is that rookie of the year quality?

Reason #4: Don’t punish him for not being apart of the process

Fans of the Philadelphia 76ers have been trusting the process for the last few years. I personally think they are the dumbest fan base in existence, buying tickets to terrible basketball games for over 4 years, just waiting for this good team.

Philadelphia, having a GIANT sports market, obviously receives tremendously more media coverage than a place like Salt Lake City. On top of that, you have this concept of “Trust the Process” in Phily, and now that the 4-5 year process is working, it also brings more national media attention. Because of this, Ben Simmons naturally received more attention from the award voters than Donovan.

News flash: it’s 2018. We no longer have to watch games on tape delay, or catch the stats in the paper the next morning. When you get around the East Coast bias, it’s easy to see that Ben Simmons is not the clear choice for RoY.

Reason #5: Donovan is the best player on his team

Unfortunately, this award is not referred to as the Most Valuable Rookie. If that were the case, Donovan would walk away with it without a doubt. This season, Donovan led his Utah Jazz team into the playoffs when no one thought they stood a chance. Ben Simmons is the 3rd best player on his team in a weaker Eastern Conference. On top of that, Donovan continues to be the best player on his team throughout the playoffs, while Ben Simmons is tied for 3rd in playoff PPG.

Without Ben Simmons, the 76ers would have played a traditional point guard and still very likely been a playoff team. Without Donovan, the Jazz would have lacked scoring and probably would have been participating in the lottery this past week.