Donovan Mitchell is getting louder.

The Utah Jazz play the Philadelphia 76er’s tonight, which means Donovan Mitchell has a new team and new players to impress. After a rough start to the season, Spida has been on a tear as of late, and opposing players have #TakenNote.

Leading up to the Trail Blazers game, we found out that Damian Lillard has built a friendship with the new Jazz guard.

“After I got drafted, (Damian Lillard) actually texted me and said that he was hoping I slipped to Portland,” Mitchell said. “He texted me right after the draft and that was kind of crazy.”

“I thought he was going to come in and work out for us and we might’ve picked him,” Lillard confirmed. “I just thought it might fall that way, but I really was a fan of what he was doing, how he carried himself and he found a good home here.”

Then another All-Star in DeMar Derozan had only good things to say as well.

I love the energy with which Donovan plays, and he’s already surpassed my expectations for him this season. In his last 5 games he’s averaged 20 points, 3.4 rebounds, 2 assists, and 1.6 steals. And don’t forget about his 44% from 3.

I believe that all NBA players are very talented basketball players. Well, most of them anyways. What sets the great ones apart is their attitude. Donovan’s play has screamed future All-Star, and lucky for us his attitude does as well. And other players gravitate towards that. Could we even have a good free agent recruiter on our hands as well?

More Donovan Mitchell news for you! It would appear that Donovan Mitchell finally got his drivers license after Tony Bradley has been his chauffeur for some time. Here he is with his first ride.

The most important thing to remember here is though, how easy is it to clean popcorn out of that?

This week in Fan Posts:

TMANKY is at it again with another roundup of Jazz basketball:

Everyone's thinking it, I'm just saying it: Turnovers.

That’s all you need to know about week 2. The Jazz didn't take care of the basketball. Highest TOV% and over 18 turnovers in each of the 3 games last week. Luckily, the Jazz pulled a 1-2 record for week 2 and there were some highlights. Also, they beat the Mavs last night and the R's caught fire from deep.

uttitanfan would like everyone to share their thoughts on how the Jazz can go from good to better to contender:

I'd love to hear ideas on what your plan would be to take this team to the next level. Who do we draft? Who do we resign, who do we seek out in trades or outside free agency?

There are a lot of intelligent basketball fans on this site and living out of Utah I don't get the chance to discuss these topics with many people anymore and would love to get a discussion going.

tvilla1203 brings back the memories (sniff) by discussing the Dream that was the Core 4:

I have been following the Jazz very intently since the Dark Times of the beginning of the Utah jazz rebuild around 2010. The reason I think I really got into the Jazz at this time was due to my own basketball playing in High School and the Fact (at that time in my high school brain.) the Jazz were going to be the next great team with what was referred to as the Core 4. I'm not sure if their are any SLCdunkers that were around for the naming of this group of 4 "young bucks", but it feels as though this dream we had of the core 4 is finally dead. You could have said that at the time of the Kanter trade and than again after Hayward left. However I had a small smidgen of hope that at least half of that core would return to the basketball graces once they got over their injury problems, however and I know its early still the final remaining pieces just don't look like they are going to be anything more than average.

What would SLC Dunk do if it wasn’t for each one of you in this awesome community?

CBS Sports took a look at Utah’s offensive woes, particularly when Rudy Gobert is on the floor. Read the whole piece here.

That's a catastrophic drop-off.

So clearly, Gobert has just gotten off to a rough start, right?

Nope. His field-goal percentage (68.5 percent) is up from last season. He's averaging more finishes out of the pick and roll per game (3) than last year (2.5) and with a greater efficiency (shooting 76.5 percent). Gobert isn't the issue.

Read through to see the issues Matt Moore identifies there. The offense has gotten incrementally better, but there is definitely still plenty of room to grow. My biggest complaint so far hasn't been the shots the offense generates, rather guys being unwilling to take an open look. Quin has preached passing for so long, and that definitely is in the culture and identity of his players. Now it’s time for them to take the next step and realize that any space in the NBA has to be taken advantage of.

From Hall of Fame shooting guard to county crossing guard, a fun story about NBA and Jazz legend Adrian Dantley surfaced recently.

Ok first off, AD spent more than double the time in Utah than he did in Detroit, so pick better images and video next time. More importantly, however, is that I feel like Dantley doesn’t get as much love and respect in the Utah Jazz kingdom that he deserves. I’m speaking to myself as well, having never seen him play live.

Wow. His numbers are better than I expect every time I pull him up. How would it be to slot that kind of offensive production into the starting lineup? The man’s jersey is in the rafters for a reason, and we were lucky to have had him for his best years. Keep doing your thing AD!