How Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert Failed the Utah Jazz

i can't stand the damn utah jazz they make me sick it seems like when i'm watching the utah jazz no chemistry they don't like each other every single time you believe in utah they let you down the drive knockout terence man for three mitchell hanging at the other end two seconds to go for the win [Music] you guys gotta understand just like in video games growing up we never played with utah utah jazz are sending rudy gobert to the minnesota timberwolves [Music] the rise and fall of the donovan mitchell and rudy gobert led utah jazz team is a story of wasted potential the jazz remain consistently near the 50 win mark record wise in the regular season each year but come playoff time they faltered in the most shocking ways whether it was losing a 3-1 lead in heartbreaking fashion or blowing a 25-point lead and squandering a gift-wrapped western conference finals appearance the utah jazz have had their fair share of post-season failure despite having a multiple time defensive player of the year winner and rudy gobert and an ultra talented offensive dynamo in donovan mitchell utah failed to make the western conference finals with these two let alone the nba finals in the 2018 playoffs the jazz exceeded expectations and were often hailed by many as having one of the brightest futures in the league but in the matter of just a few seasons it all came crashing down the duo of rudy gobert and donovan mitchell grew question marks with potential beef and drama surfacing between the two behind the scenes each year no matter how deep or talented the roster was the team faced a new level of disappointment in the playoffs until the front office had had enough in 2022 the duo was split the jazz traded gobert to minnesota for a boatload of draft picks officially ending the polarizing rudy gobert donovan mitchell era and utah so that begs the question why did this duo fail to achieve greatness despite being given so many chances to succeed how could a team with so much talent led by two star-level players deteriorate so frequently come playoff time what decisions did the jazz make that doom their core of mitchell and gober and what could they have done differently this is the unbelievable story of how rudy gobert and donovan mitchell fail to win a championship with the utah jazz the jazz have disappointed me this team is so up and down sometimes they're great sometimes we don't know who they are you are one of my favorite players but you don't have what it takes to get to the next level i set it on purpose i want you to hear it what do you have to say about that all right this story begins in the 2016-17 season where gordon hayward and a 24 year old rudy gobert led the team the jazz were in the midst of their best season since 2010 winning 51 games eyeing a deep playoff run they wanted to keep their all-star and upcoming free agent gordon hayward happy and entered the playoffs hoping some winning could convince him to stay in round one of the 2017 playoffs utah beat the la clippers in seven advancing to the second round for the first time in gordon hayward's seven-year-long jazz tenure unfortunately in round two the golden state warriors destroyed utah sweeping them as the big four of clay thompson steph curry draymond green and kevin durant stomped all over utah's defense the jazz looked pathetic compared to golden state but this series outcome surprised no one the warriors went on to win the championship utah had finally made the playoffs for the first time since 2012 but were quickly kicked out as soon as they arrived they now stared at the summer of 2017 with fear in their eyes their greatest terror was close to being realized gordon hayward was on the way out the 2017 off-season for utah was one of massive decisions that could have groundbreaking effects on their franchise it first started off with the 2017 draft in which the jazz got the 24th pick their front office wanted to make a splash and were tantalized by university of louisville guard donovan mitchell the jazz who desperately desired a young piece with potential traded the 24th pick along with 21 year old young forward trey lyles to the denver nuggets for the rights to donovan mitchell the trade was complete the most gutsy risky move the franchise had made in years was done donovan mitchell was a versatile scorer who had unreal hops with a clean three-point stroke the jazz believed he had the potential to become one of the best scorers in the league and were hoping to incentivize gordon hayward to stay with this move they followed this draft up by trading for ricky rubio eight days later giving up a first round pick in order to do so their work here was done now it was time to wait and see if hayward would put the pen to the paper he did an anger filled throughout the state of utah for seven years the jazz had been mediocre with hayward but when it finally appeared that they were breaking out hayward left a heartbreaking turn of events and now the jazz shifted their eyes away from the past and on to the future rudy gobert who just placed second in the defensive player of the year race and donovan mitchell the explosive youngster were now the faces of the franchise and it was time for mitchell to show what he was made of in summer league the 2017 summer league experience for donovan mitchell was electric and he showed his potential from day one he first started off by dropping 23 points with five times against san antonio sending the crowd into a frenzy with his smooth scoring ability he could put the ball in the basket from anywhere averaging 20 points per game with five steals on average he was quick with sweet handles that excelled in the fast break if you blinked you'd miss the show that was mitchell and he gave the state of utah a taste of his potential suddenly the pitchforks that had been lifted from gordon hayward's departure had been lowered hayward may have left but none of that mattered because donovan mitchell was here to save the day one summer league wrapped up there was tons of hype surrounding mitchell and now he began preparing for what would be an iconic rookie season the 2017-18 utah jazz blew any expectations of them out of the water with rudy gobert and donovan mitchell taking the spotlight from day one mitchell took the world by storm his best early performance coming against the lakers on october 28th 2017 where he scored 22 points two of them coming on an unreal putback slam if this wasn't good enough he followed up that dunk with a three in kyle kuzma's face as the home crowd exploded into excitement donovan mitchell had arrived but he was just one piece to the puzzle rudy gobert may have not had the fiery dunks that his teammate had but his defense was near the top of the league gobert averaged 2.3 blocks per game and had the second lowest defensive rating in the league at 99.4 these stats earned him the first defensive player of the year award of his career the first of many gobert had worked from being the unknown 27th pick in the draft in 2013 all the way to becoming one of the most feared defenders in the game this duo couldn't do it alone though key role players like ricky rubio brought playmaking joe ingles brought shooting and derrick favors was an above average two-way big man the highlights may have been exciting but come late january the jazz were stuck in no man's land utah had an ugly 19 and 28 record with the playoffs seeming like an out of reach dream but to mitchell and gobert that dream was about to become a reality donovan mitchell put his foot on the gas and scored 23 points per game in march and 25 points per game in april perhaps his most spectacular performance came in the late march 2018 game against the spurs where he scored 35 against san antonio in a battle for the playoffs mitchell was clutched down the stretch nailing a three to tie it in the fourth and hitting tough jumpers in ot that may have been his most impressive game but his most iconic moment came during the all-star weekend in 2018 where he won the dunk contest donovan mitchell wasn't just an up-and-coming star player he was an entertainer gaining new fans each game with his offensive showcases he and fellow rookie ben simmons were competing for the rookie of the year award with mitchell himself even taking a few friendly shots at simmons mitchell trolled ben wearing a shirt that had the definition of a rookie on it poking fun at how this was ben's second year in the league and how he had missed year one due to injury the jazz went 29-6 in their final 35 games a phenomenal run that showed the league that while they may have been young they were serious they had achieved just as much if not more success in their first year with mitchell and gobert together than any year with gordon hayward this second half of the season's swing was also helped by their moves during the 2018 trade deadline the jazz had traded rodney hood and joe johnson to cleveland for jay crowder the jazz finished with 48 wins which was good enough for the fifth seed in a competitive western conference the fun and games were over now the jazz entered a big stage squaring off against the veteran okc thunder in round one it would be no easy battle the thunder were going all in for a championship run and had two mvp caliber players on their team but the jazz prevailed the start wasn't pretty in game one paul george and russell westbrook combined for 65 points and the thunder executed perfectly beating utah with ease in game two donovan mitchell responded with revenge scoring 28 with 13 in the fourth tying the series at one the jazz swung the momentum back in their favor winning game three thanks to rubio's 26 and taking game 4 thanks to mitchell's 33 okc may have been favored to win but the jazz held strong holding on by a thread in game 6 to move on donovan mitchell exploded with 38 points in this closeout victory while gobert scored 12 with 13 rebounds three blocks and two steals in the clutch it was derrick favors who was as cool as a cucumber nailing the mid-range 2 that ultimately pushed utah to the win the jazz had decimated the thunder advancing to round 2 for the first time since 2010 this team was a breath of fresh air led by rubio mitchell gobert and joe ingles but their run came to a screeching halt in round two the 65 win houston rockets took utah's impressive run and crushed it stealing their lunch money and defeating them in five mitchell averaged 20. gobert averaged 12 and 10 with 2.6 blocks but their best efforts were not enough to beat the rockets the end result surprised no one it was unfortunately clear that the jazz didn't have the talent to compete with houston utah's 2018 offseason was perhaps one of the quietest in the league after a prior offseason filled with trades and electric draft day decisions utah's biggest move was drafting grace and allen with the 21st pick outside of the draft they re-signed derrick favors and young guard dante exum and that was raps on their off-season a comical lack of moves utah's front office wanted to run it back and hope their key players had developed during the summer the 2018-19 season for the jazz was a forgettable 82 games that saw them finish with a middle of the pack record in the west the team lacked offensive firepower donovan mitchell had to do all the heavy lifting and even he wasn't perfect mitchell was a bad perimeter defender and wasn't elite and any other skill outside of scoring the jazz only had one true playmaker on the team that player being ricky rubio who lacked an above average three-point shot on the defensive end the jazz excelled and this was 100 due to rudy gober gobert had gotten even better on defense winning the defensive player of the year award again his impact while not being flashy was significant to the team's success and it was often overlooked by the nba world on offense is where rudy was lackluster he couldn't shoot it or dribble at a high level but to many his defense outweighed his offensive issues the 2019 playoffs saw utah face a familiar foe in round one the houston rockets and for the second straight year they were out talented losing in five while the end result looked ugly it was a winnable series for utah but their poor shooting and inefficient play was their downfall donovan mitchell who was praised for his unrelenting offensive dominance in the 2018 playoffs shot just 32 percent from the field and 25 from three in the 2019 postseason the rockets won easily in five sending the jazz home once again utah spent the offseason of 2018 making little to no big moves and that resulted in a familiar exit to the rockets now in the summer of 2019 they needed to re-establish themselves as a force to be reckoned with in the west and offense was their target they first started off by making a huge trade acquiring long-time grizzlies guard mike conley in exchange for grace and allen j crowder kyle korver and two first-round picks the jazz were stepping up to the plate and hoping to hit a home run by making this deal conley would give them much-needed offense they weren't done yet though come free agency time they offered a four-year 73 million dollar deal to offensive sharpshooter boyan bogdanovic and he accepted bogdanovic was an 18 points per game scorer in indiana and conley was a 21 points per game scorer in memphis neither of them were all stars but utah had made one thing very clear they wanted offense and they got offense the turbulent 2019-20 season for the jazz could be described in one word inconsistent the expectations were high due to their monstrous summer but when the players stepped foot on the court the results were middling the team's bench was poor they had little depth at the guard and big man spots and mike conley dealt with various hamstring injuries that hampered his play donovan mitchell and rudy gobert were first-time all-stars finally getting the recognition they felt they deserve from the league utah as a team though didn't meet the aspirations that their fanbase had hoped for there were times when they looked like world beaters winning 19 of 21 in december through january then there were times when they were embarrassing getting blown out by teams that they were more than capable of beating in december of 2019 the jazz traded dante exum and two second round picks for cavs guard jordan clarkson clarkson was an offensive minded shooter who would go on to win the sixth man of the year award a year and a half later he proved to be a great addition to the team the biggest news surrounding the organization came off the court though when in march of 2020 rudy gobert infamously mocked the nba's new physical distancing rules by touching off the microphones during a pre-game press conference these distancing rules were enacted by the nba to keep people safe right around the beginning of the pandemic we all know today she and mitchell both ended up testing positive and the season was shut down gobert realized the severity of his actions and apologized on social media for the mistake donovan mitchell was understandably heated at gobert for being so irresponsible and a rift grew between the two players during quarantine mitchell ignored rudy's calls on the day the league was shut down and the entire team grew frustrated at go bearer donovan and rudy didn't communicate for months and finally in july of 2020 mitchell said the two had moved on and put things behind them the friendship seemed to be resolved on the surface but it cannot be understated that while mitchell may have forgiven him his true feelings may have been put to the side in order to help the team's chemistry when the bubble arrived in mid-july of 2020 the jazz stood at just the sixth seed a disappointing conclusion to the regular season utah was hoping their 2019 summer full of big trades and hefty free agent signings would give them an elite record but after all of that they couldn't even land a top 5 seed however with the bubble having no home court advantage and unusual conditions for every team the jazz had a chance of shocking the league and gunning for the title their first opponent in round one would be the denver nuggets led by a dominant big three of nikola jokic michael porter jr and jamal murray beating the third seed in nuggets would be no easy task but donovan mitchell was up for the challenge scoring 40 points per contest in the first four games of the series mitchell was a man on a mission and utah needed every bit of his offense donovan dropped two 50-point bombs in this series he scored 57 in game 1 and 51 in game 4 guiding his team to a 3-1 lead rudy gobert was phenomenal as well averaging 19 and 10 with 1.5 blocks per game this duo had fire in their eyes and were motivated to advance to round two but this remarkable run was about to turn into a nightmare even when it looked like everything was going utah's way this series was about to take a turn for the worst in a crucial game 5 jamal murray scored 42 points as the nuggets escaped with a victory game 6 saw donovan mitchell score a fiery 44 points but this paled in comparison to jamal murray's 50-point bomb denver had won two in a row tying the series at three forcing a do or die game seven game seven went down to the wire with both teams being tied at 78 with just under 40 seconds left it was nugget's fall and jokic went one-on-one against the two-time defensive player of the year winner rudy gober beating him with a hook shot to take the lead then on the following possession donovan turned it over and the nuggets ran the break but missed a layup gobert grabbed the board and threw it up to mike conley who missed an off-balance three that would have won them the series hanging on the other end wide open behind the three-point line was donovan mitchell who sank to the floor in despair after the miss in all of what just transpired this moment truly represented a missed opportunity the jazz had just squandered what could have been a championship run they blew a to one lead and despite mitchell's best efforts his play went unrewarded a wild dramatic series that started off so incredibly for utah had ended with their star player lying in agony on the floor it was over the jazz had lost with a gruelling offseason awaiting them the 2020 offseason for the jazz saw them re-sign the trio of rudy gobert jordan clarkson and donovan mitchell mitchell received a max contract while clarkson received a four-year 52 million dollar deal gobert received a five-year 205 million dollar super max deal the largest contract ever for a big man at the time this deal would become a controversial topic of discussion among the nba community with many vehemently believing he was unworthy of this huge bag lastly the team brought back fan favorite derrick favors on a two-year 36 million dollar deal which concluded their off-season the jazz were confident in their roster and felt the team had what it took to break through into playoff success they were about to experience the best regular season of the rudy gobert jonathan mitchell era and it was a blast from the beginning the 2020-21 season saw the utah jazz win 52 games out of 72 with mitchell and gobert having the best stats of their careers mitchell averaged 26 per game shooting 38 from three with five dimes and four rebounds gobert was just as lethal averaging 14 a game leading the league in field goal percentage blocking a mind-boggling 2.7 shots on average rudy gobert wasn't just a great defender he was a legendary all-time defender and he carried utah's defense on his shoulders mike conley had also finally evolved into the key starting point guard the jazz needed earning the first all-star appearance of his then 14-year long career with his 16 and six averages the jazz had the best record in the nba for a majority of the season with a trio of talented all-stars leading the way but even with this they felt they weren't getting the respect they deserved in the league in a march 2021 game against the philadelphia 76ers utah lost in overtime and gobert sounded off on the refs claiming their team was disrespected by them utah fans agreed and rallied around him only to be even more disrespected on national television by lebron james and kevin durant a few days later the two captains were drafting their 2021 all-star teams and had taken every other all-star before rudy and donovan leaving them at the bottom of the barrel lebron said he wanted to draft size but chose 611 to montes a bonus over seven foot one rudy gober this prompted charles barkley to call kd and lebron leaving the two utah players last as jazzlander lebron responded by saying that just like in video games growing up people would never pick the utah jazz to play with a lighthearted joke on the surface but this moment was a slap in the face to the jazz's fan base not even the best record in the league could give them the respect they yearn for which put a great amount of pressure on them to perform in the playoffs it was clear that the jazz were not feared by many but if they won the championship it would be the perfect revenge the 2021 playoffs kicked off with utah looking to achieve just that facing the young and upcoming memphis grizzlies in round one the jazz beat them in five but it wasn't as easy as it looked utah lost game one by three and game four saw the jazz just barely scraped by for the victory mike conley had also suffered right hamstring tightness in game 5 of this series which would force him to miss almost the entirety of round two a tough loss but the jazz were up for the challenge they had won a playoff series for the first time since 2018 and the la clippers would be waiting for them in round two the kawhi leonard paul george led la clippers faced off against the jazz in utah for game one and it was a thriller utah took the w with rudy gobert blocking marcus morris's three-point attempt to seal the victory donovan mitchell scored 45 as well showing how deadly this duo could be when they both clicked game 2 followed the same pattern utah won again as mitchell continued his dominance scoring 37 the jazz now led two games to none and were just two more wins away from reaching the western conference finals they had the chance to earn redemption after such a heartbreaking exit in 2020 and could prove all their doubters wrong the clippers responded with two blowout wins in games three and four but unfortunate injury news came from la's side regarding their superstar kawhi leonard kawaii had torn his acl in game four which would be a massive loss for their team la now lacked one of their two stars and the overwhelming favorite to advance was now utah but that didn't happen game 5 was another loss this time at home mitchell shot 6 of 19 while gobert was quiet on both ends boyan bogdanovich's 32 points weren't good enough to win and now the jazz's packs were against the wall if they lost game 6 it would be a complete and utter organizational failure luckily game six began with news that all star point guard mike conley would be returning from his hamstring injury he suffered in round one and the team fed off this positive energy the jazz blew the clippers out of the water in the first half taking a 25 point lead in the early third quarter utah looked like they were ready to re-establish momentum and win the series but then everything came crashing down the clippers went on a terror with reggie jackson and terence mann two role players combining for 66 points utah watched in all as the clippers turned into a flamethrower from downtown outscoring the jazz 40-25 in the final quarter mitchell who had a phenomenal game till that point shot two of eight in the fourth and was below average on defense gobert shot just six times and was a team worst minus 26 on the floor many believe the then three-time defensive player of the year winner was exposed on defense during this game which is untrue in retrospect the jazz had just one solid perimeter defender on the team that being royce o'neill and a majority of the clippers buckets in the second half came from downtown gobert was in charge of the paint and the jazz lack of defensive rotation on the perimeter led to a bunch of open triples for the clippers where gobear struggled though was on offense there were moments when he looked lost in the paint and where mitchell opted to take inefficient close shots instead of just passing it to him the jazz's season was over they had lost a 2-0 lead to la and were eliminated by a team without their best player finishing it off by allowing a 25-point comeback in game 6. the clippers could sense fear in their eyes and took full advantage while they were celebrating a trip to the western conference finals the jazz sat at home with another choke playoff series added to their resume the summer of 2021 saw utah retained mike conley for 3 years 72 million but besides that their roster remained similar utah may have faced their fair share of playoff demons of the past but they were going all in for one final donovan mitchell rudy gobert led rodeo and they believed in their chances the 2021-22 season for the jazz transpired as any other typical regular season for the team would they were solid record wise winning 49 games and snatching the fifth seed in the west the winnie didn't take the headlines though instead more possible beef between their two stars was the talk of the town in the 2019-20 season donovan mitchell on average passed the ball to rudy gobert 5.8 times a game fast forward to the 2021-22 season and that number had dipped to 2.3 a game a shocking stat this wasn't mitchell to go bear a cis per game no it was passes per game in other news the jazz hired former celtics general manager danny ainge in december of 2021 as their new ceo he was known as being one of the best general managers when it came to trading in nba history eyebrows were raised could the jazz have hired ange to orchestrate a possible trade involving one of the two stars ultimately this was all put to the side the jazz were focused on the postseason where the dallas mavericks met them in round one and the result was yet again a loss utah dropped the series in six losing to a team that they had all the potential in the world to beat the mavericks were without superstar point guard luca tancic for games one through three due to a strained calf he suffered but instead of taking advantage of this injury utah dug themselves into a 2-1 hole that's right after winning game one the jazz lost two in a row with six foot one guard jalen brunson scoring 41 and 31 in games two and three brunson a 16 points per game scorer in the regular season torched utah's perimeter defense making them look like a high school team luca returned in game 4 and the jazz were able to squeak out a much needed win to tie the series at 2 but they immediately folded like a chair in game 5 to go down 3-2 everything was on the line at home in a crucial game 6 and it was a close battle in crunch time the jazz trail by 1 with 10 seconds left but mike conley turned it over and squandered a huge offensive opportunity still it was a 2 point game with 4.3 seconds left the jazz had plenty of time to hit a huge shot fittingly utah set up a beautiful wide-open shot boyyon bogdanovich had all the time in the world to fire it up but in pure jazz fashion it was a brick just like in the 2019 playoffs in round one where their team shot horribly against the houston rockets to lose or like in the 2020 playoffs where mike conley missed a three to win the series or even like in 2021 where the jazz choked and went cold losing four in a row to the clippers this was a pattern and it was repeating itself over and over now in 2022 the jazz presented with all the chances in the world to win took that opportunity and crumbled it into a million pieces once again this wide open mist was a microcosm of such failure a perfect representation of the rudy donovan era in utah wasted opportunity fingers were pointed everywhere donovan mitchell was criticized for his horrible defense rudy gobert was picked apart for his terrible offense and utah shooters were condemned for their poor efficiency the jazz's organization had had enough longtime head coach quinn snyder stepped down much to the disapproval of donovan mitchell and they brought in celtic's assistant will hardy this was the first domino that fell and once headlines came out that rudy gobert told the jazz's front office to choose between him or mitchell that was a wrap gobert was reportedly irritated at mitchell's lack of defense and felt like he was falling off in terms of explosiveness the jazz heard him loud and clear and on july 1st 2022 they traded rudy gobert to the minnesota timberwolves in exchange for five first-round picks the polarizing duo was finally split representing the end to a frustrating but exciting era of jazz basketball donovan mitchell and rudy gobert while both being talented could never fit together mitchell's glaring hole on defense and gobert's lack of offensive skill limited their ceiling severely they were constantly handed different opportunities at greatness year after year but instead of seizing the moment they failed to capitalize in 2018 the jazz defeated the heavily favored okc thunder in round one and looked like they had one of the brightest futures in the league four years later in 2022 their duo donovan mitchell and rudy gobert will have a legacy that's remembered for nothing more than drama and poor playoff performances [Music] [Applause] [Music] you

Channel: dylandoesbasketball

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Id: 5Dh32jKwcdc

Length: 33min 26sec (2006 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 20 2022