Donovan Mitchell always says the right things

In case you missed it Wednesday morning, Donovan Mitchell appeared on ESPN’s First Take and just killed it. You would think as a rookie that Donovan Mitchell might occasionally slip up and say something awkward or inappropriate in such a bright spotlight on the national stage. But sharing a screen with Stephen A. Smith didn’t even break the Spida. He appeared calm, cool, and collected, as per usual, and said all the right things.

Here’s what I love about this interview:

Mitchell’s outfit

Doesn’t it always seem like Donovan Mitchell is sporting Utah Jazz apparrell? And not just your usual t-shirt, hoodie, and sweats, the good stuff. The hoodie he is wearing is very nice, complemented by the gold “45” chain hanging on his neck. It’s capped off with the black Vivint (I think?) hat, really looking like a true Utah local.

His response to the ROY question

Stephen A. was definitely trying to get something juicy out of Donovan with the way he asked him about the rookie of the year award. Mitchell wasn’t falling for that weak bait, and answered it like a true gentleman and scholar. He mentioned how he was more focused on the playoff race, and winning championships in the future. What more can you ask from the kid? Leave the rookie of the year discussion to the fans on twitter BECAUSE BLOOD HAS BEEN SHED IN THE NAME OF DONOVAN MITCHELL’S ROOKIE OF THE YEAR CAMPAIGN.

Donovan Mitchell just always says the right things. He started doing it from his first pre-draft interview, and has continued to impress with his maturity as a young NBA star.

After a solid win against the Lakers on Tuesday night and a Spurs loss, the Jazz moved up to the fourth seed in the Western Conference. This was quite an accomplishment for the Jazz to reach, considering where they were at in the standings just two months ago. But Quin Snyder saw something he didn’t like in his team during their win on Tuesday, and that had to do with the Jazz’s sense of urgency.

Snyder was pretty adamant about the Jazz needing to increase effort and urgency, and reiterated the fact that they have not actually clinched a playoff spot yet.

Even though the Jazz have 98 percent probability based on 538’s projections, there is definitely still room for error. We’ve seen these crazy things happen before, which means they can surely happen again. But the Jazz are playing their best basketball at the best time of the season, and with four games to go it looks like they have a playoff spot all but locked up. If they can win out, they will have home-court advantage through the first round, which would be incredible.

Remeber #TankNote? You thought we were talking about the Jazz? Pfft, never! It was totally about the Stars!

The Stars will have the first pick in the G-League draft after finishing with the worst record, and will have a shot at drafting Darius Bazley. Bazley made a splash when he announced that he was entering the G-League instead of going the tradional route of college ball. If the Stars were to draft him, he would only play for a single season on the Stars and then enter the NBA draft after becoming eligible. The Jazz would not retain any rights whatsoever over Bazley, but it would be neat to have a big name in town to help sell tickets and for future relations.

So, Ricky Rubio has been straight-up torching it lately. He scored 31 points the other night, making it his fifth game of 30+ points this season.

Rubio is having the best year of his career in Utah. He’s won more games here than he did in six seasons in Minnesota, and is well on his way to his first playoff appearance as a professional NBA player. That’s quite a feat, and I honestly couldn’t be happier for Ricky Rubio. For someone that plays as hard and scrappy as Ricky does, he deserves to play for good teams that win and make it to the playoffs. I’m so excited to see playoff Ricky.

In cased you missed it, Trey Lyles bashed the Utah Jazz... again. In a podcast with Richard Jefferson, he went out of his way to say some things about the Jazz organization and Utah as a “city” (lol).

Lyles kicked off his comments that he definitely won’t regret, with saying he was “unfortunately” drafted by the Utah Jazz back in 2015. He then whined about Quin Snyder’s “three-hour practices”, and said he felt like he was back in Kentucky again. Lyles finished up with insightfully adding Utah to the “top-five worst NBA cities” list.

I really liked Trey Lyles as a Jazzman. I saw some great potential in him and defended him for a long time hoping that he would live up to his potential. But after watching him fail to box out guards that were six inches smaller than him, or seeing him get toasted on defense, or bricking ill-advised three-pointers early in the shot clock, I will agree that it was “unfortunate” that he was drafted by the Jazz.

I get that some guys don’t like to play here, I think everyone in the NBA world gets that. But it seems that Lyles has gone out of his way to knock on the Jazz several times in less than a year after being traded. I don’t think it’s a good look for him, but I wish him the best.

For now, I’m just enjoying the guy that they traded him for and watching his historic rookie season. Thanks Trey.