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What is Wrong with Donovan?

Eenie-Meenie said:
I think you're a bit extreme in your assessment. What do you mean he doesn't get to the rim? That is pure b.s. And he is getting lots of contact but not getting the calls. That seems to be the case with the Jazz overall. Why is every season it seems we are on the short end of the calls. Last night's miss was an aberration and may have been a make-up call for the travel they missed that cost us 3 points.
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4.5 free throw attempts per game is not “getting to the rim” like even close to an elite player.
 
If you look at his shooting percentages this year, he is shooting about the same as Bojan, Clarkson, Mudiay, Royce and Niang from various points. Could it be that Quin is putting too much on him?
 
His leadership in the lockeroom might not just be what it looks like when in front of the camera.

The strength of the team, is the team...when Rubio was here.

You don't hear that anymore.

When the ball sticks to him at the end of halves/games, and he doesn't deliver/leaves too much time on the clock, there might be a little resentment from the team.

The strength of the team isn't what it was last year and DM looks like he's putting it on his shoulders and it's wearing him down.
 
Wes Mantooth said:
Ah. Donnie doesn’t get the calls but everyone else in the league does. Got it.
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I don't know about the other guys, but it seems you breathe on Harden and he gets the call. I've seen DM get hit several times on a drive and not get a call. I'm sure others on the site will agree.

In any case, he definitely has not been his normal self lately. To say he's not that good doesn't explain why he has not been as good.
 
Wes Mantooth said:
Like, let’s be honest here. When he goes to penetrate, does anyone feel superbly confident that he’s gonna blow by his guy, get to the rim/score/draw the foul, or make some move to draw defenders to get someone else an easy basket. I sure as hell don’t. I easily would with Curry, Harden, Giannis, Doncic, and others. Not really at all with Donnie. And his inability to explosively jump off of one foot is probably the biggest reason holding him back. And that’s just baffling to me.
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What's funny is that faith in his drives has gone down every year since his rookie year. Ask me this at the end of his rookie year and the answer is absolutely yes. Now it's a frustrated shrug. It sucks.

He reinvented himself as a midrange shooter rather than a dynamic driver who breaks down the D.
 
LogGrad98 said:
What's funny is that faith in his drives has gone down every year since his rookie year. Ask me this at the end of his rookie year and the answer is absolutely yes. Now it's a frustrated shrug. It sucks.

He reinvented himself as a midrange shooter rather than a dynamic driver who breaks down the D.
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That’s because his rookie year he was Rick Vaughn in Major League. Since the media hype, his sophomore and junior years have been more like Rick Vaughn in Major League 2. He just needs to discover himself as Rick Vaughn at the end of Major League 2.

I dare anyone to find a better comparison.
 
LogGrad98 said:
What's funny is that faith in his drives has gone down every year since his rookie year. Ask me this at the end of his rookie year and the answer is absolutely yes. Now it's a frustrated shrug. It sucks.

He reinvented himself as a midrange shooter rather than a dynamic driver who breaks down the D.
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Did this begin to happen after the breakdown video by Kobe?
 
LogGrad98 said:
What's funny is that faith in his drives has gone down every year since his rookie year. Ask me this at the end of his rookie year and the answer is absolutely yes. Now it's a frustrated shrug. It sucks.

He reinvented himself as a midrange shooter rather than a dynamic driver who breaks down the D.
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When Kobe put out his Detail video during DM's rookie season, we were tied with Houston 1-1. We lost the next three games and bowed out with Donovan shooting 36% from the field and forgetting how to drive. The magic he had prior to the video hasn't exactly been duplicated.

 
candrew said:
He's watching The Jazz get torched every night by more talented offensive players and he feels like he should be "that guy" for his team. So he's pressing and making poor decisions instead of letting the game come to him.
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This is what I'm seeing as well. Ever since it was announced that he made the all star team he's been pressing and forcing shots.
 
He's watched and played too much "hip hop" ball and it's going to take some time to get it out of his system and play smart basketball instead!
 
Lol there is a part where kobe says go right through capella and draw the foul...

Problem is the refs more often times dont call that
 
Wes Mantooth said:
He’s not that great is the problem imo. He’ll never be a top 10-12 player. His perimeter game is average. His dribble penetration is okay to solid but he doesn’t get to the rim and isn’t really a threat to which makes having to double him not a thing. He’s an average passer. How many elite non point guards don’t get to the rim? Because doing that draws double teams and opens more **** up for teammates, allows for easy points at that line, gets opponents into foul trouble which in turn gets those players to loosen up their defensive efforts...not having a player get to the line frequently is an issue. I never see him doing that. And his TS% is subpar.
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He's in his 3rd year and he's 23 years old. To say he will "never be" this or that, is ridiculous. It all depends on his work ethic during and in the off-season. There are a lot of players in NBA past that never hit their prime until they were 30. Outside of that, most don't hit their prime until they're 28. Why would you write off a players capabilities when only 2 years ago, they couldn't even legally drink.
 
Lakers_Slapper said:
He's in his 3rd year and he's 23 years old. To say he will "never be" this or that, is ridiculous. It all depends on his work ethic during and in the off-season. There are a lot of players in NBA past that never hit their prime until they were 30. Outside of that, most don't hit their prime until they're 28. Why would you write off a players capabilities when only 2 years ago, they couldn't even legally drink.
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I say it because he has not improved in any noticeable way in the 2.5 years he’s been in the league. People might say he has except the advanced data doesn’t back that up.
 
UtahJazz32 said:
all y'all are reading too much into this.
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He's not on the same trajectory as he was on in his rookie year though and definitely not since the Kobe video.

Alot has went to his head imo.

But he's only what 24?

It's still early, but man he's not turning into D Wade yet.
 
I think the difference between his rookie year and now is 2 things. 1) his rookie year had zero expectations and he was just playing loose and free, doing what came naturally. His drives were dynamic, not forced, and fluid. Witness the spin move that's now basically nonexistent. He was a master of the euro-step, I would even say pioneer, and now it's basically gone. He's playing more methodically now, and as a result more woodenly, almost as if the dynamic nature has been coached out of him. We don't see his athleticism as much either. Used to have several jaw-dropping moves and plays each half if not each quarter. Now it's maybe a few times a game. Where did that go? Did he work to hard on getting strong and lose the dynamic nature of his play along the way?

And 2) he was playing like he was having fun. I don't see that in him much any more. He's more serious, seems to be forcing the issue more and more, and more often than not showing tightness in his face rather than the trademark grin.

I don't know how you fix these things. But I think both of them are holding him back.
 
Another thing was in his rookie year he had an almost uncanny ability to finish at the rim around and over much bigger and more defenders with English off the backboard at impossible angles. He was a master of using English and angles to get the ball to drop. Now as often as not it will clang off the backboard and rim. Not sure what happened with this either.


I'm sure part of the change is teams game planning more effectively around him, but I also think part of it is him trying to force things rather than playing loose and taking what they give him, part of it is probably coaching, and part of it might be the pressure to be the top guy getting to him.

I don't know but his stats are moderately better but I'd say his play is not really any better.
 
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