Donovan Mitchell’s dunk rating gets a boost in NBA 2K19

NBA 2K has been releasing player ratings and Donovan Mitchell’s has now been released (check out yesterday’s downbeat for more on that). Mitchell himself seemed more concerned with a particular rating that he got seriously shortchanged on last year.

Though Mitchell saw his overall ranking go from 75 at the start of the season to an 84 by the end, his dunk rating at one point was 50. For a guy who won the dunk contest, it was unacceptable.

Apparently, that glitch has now been fixed.

Mitchell seemed cool with his rating, but his old ROY foe Ben Simmons didn’t appear pleased with his rating, which also came in at 87, same as Mitchell and Boston’s Jayson Tatum. And a couple of people caught his candid reaction to hearing what his rating was.

It must have been disappointing for him to be in the same boat as Mitchell and Tatum, two of the NBA’s fastest rising stars. Maybe he’ll have a high rating if he repeats as Rookie of the Year.

The fact that the top three candidates for ROY got the same rating is fairly interesting Makes it seem like the guys over at 2K didn’t want to get involved in what may be a longstanding debate for years to come about who is best among the three.

The Jazz released a short video about Dante Exum and him coming back to the team after being a restricted free agent. In it, Exum talks briefly about the importance of being a team and how “it’s not about one guy.” It’s basically more of what we’ve constantly seen with Utah’s strong locker room.

Here’s a funny little video that imagines a scenario where someone has to bring a buddy up to speed on what has taken place in the NBA since 2016.

While Mitchell has been putting a lot of time into celebrity appearances, he’s also been spending time in the gym, apparent from this Instagram video where he starts out by making 13 straight 3-pointers.

One of the criticisms the young star got during his rookie campaign involved his 3-point shooting. Improving that will go a long way toward further validating his path to NBA stardom.