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Mitchell injury

KqWIN said:
I don't doubt that DM is frustrated with missing All NBA and that this is part of this....but holding him out of this playoff game doesn't effect All NBA. He was already a full participant in practice and as I understand practices are just as physically demanding as games. You almost never see a full participant in practice not play the next game.

But like I was saying earlier, it doesn't really matter whose right. If there is no trust between training staff and player, that relationship cannot exist. If Mitchell truly was not ready to play, they needed to do a better job of communicating that to him. That is part of the job.

The fact that everybody was blindsided by this including the other players makes me think that the training staff was trying to show authority. At minimum, it is a total failure of management to have nobody on the team know what the situation is. The training staff could be 100% correct in their call, but if the players didn't know this was the case than it is still a major failure. Somebody is going to lose their job over this, and it's not Don.
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If he was a full participant in practice, then you know that the players would have a good sense of whether or not he was ready, don't you think?
 
Handlogten's Heros said:
Agree here... people saying this is about him being a diva... nah. Its about him wanting to ****ing play basketball. When it happens like this and people start talking I wouldn't blame him for saying "hey... i was ready to play... i didn't make this decision". Its fairly clear from the comments from the other guys that they aren't throwing DM under the bus.

He's a competitor... he wants to compete... he apparently doesn't get to make that decision.
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Ya it seems to me that donovan wanted to play, was ready to play, and was not allowed to play by the jazz medical staff. And now many of the jazz players (and fans) are rightfully pissed.
 
That was a fun couple of minutes of reading. I’m on Mitchell’s side completely. Dude would have never leaked anything if he played yesterday. Think of how great it would have been to have him return and we win Game 1. It’s the playoffs. Every game matters. Dude wants to be out there and play. Let him play for ****s sake. We are going to piss off our franchise player for what?
 
Handlogten's Heros said:
Yes... i think the training staff player relationship is broken here... the Leonard situation ran much deeper imo. It was that Kawhi didn't trust anyone there anymore.

I think someone has to take some heat. If the training staff did what they should and then were influenced by front office or others to not list the guy as a game time decision... or if the messaging from the front office to the players and coaches was that he would be available... then the medical staff should speak up and throw the FO under the bus. I generally agree someone won't be back next year because of this issue.

Yesterday wasn't about all-nba, but it could have been about the staff feeling slighted by the events of the last month and dug into their position. Was just trying to find the place where the issue started.

The medical staff may also have felt like the writing was on the wall for them and felt they couldn't clear DM only to have him get hurt while they were looking for new jobs.

There is plenty of blame to go around here... GM/front office get a heaping pile imo... at very least for how this all came down.
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Kawhi situation was definitely worse, but the Jazz need to be careful that this doesn't go down the same path. Don already does not trust the training staff, that is what he has in common with Kawhi. You don't want this to linger and for him to not trust the whole organization like Kawhi.

I just can't imagine a situation where the training staff is too shy to put Mitchell on the injury report but confident enough to rule him out a couple hours before game time. It is literally against league rules. It does feel like a power grab situation from the training staff and even if it wasn't...you have to think Don and the players feel the same way.

I also think there was a joint decision here where the training staff wanted to show their authority, but maybe the FO thought they could probably win without Don (we should have) and didn't mind being extra cautious. That's why the FO allowed it. It might have been fine if the team won or the players weren't blindsided...but you can't blindside your whole team and then lose.

Don is not the only one pissed right now. Somebody is losing their job over this. Pure ineptitude to blindside your entire team right before a playoff game.
 
oneye said:
He's not, he's a drama queen who protects him and his image as you say at whatever cost to anyone else. He did it to Rudy last year, training staff now. Sending cryptic messages on social media and again leaking to the press show he's in it for one guy, himself. He had to blame Rudy, now he has to blame the medical staff. ITS HIM.
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But what doesn't fit your scenario is that they had cleared him to play and at the last minute changed their mind. Now who's to blame? Certainly not Don.
 
I’m not a medical expert at all or anything close but please explain what an extra two days would do that a month+ couldn’t.
 
Eenie-Meenie said:
Let's face it. If he was a full participant in practice and wasn't ready, don't you think the rest of the team would've noticed him wincing or hobbling around or not being able to land properly, etc. I'm sure the team is pissed because they also thought he was ready.
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Good point.
 
And whose opinion was it that he was "not quite" ready. Not Don's, not his teammates. Quin hasn't said anything, has he, or Dennis. Step up to the plate, Dennis. Did Don's medical people have a different opinion? We need to know this.
 
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I’d also like to throw it out there that Mitchell was jumping up and down on the bench last night. Hardly looked like someone who couldn’t go. Plus seeing it get chippy hyped him up even more and probably made him more pissed that he wasn’t out there.
 
KqWIN said:
Kawhi situation was definitely worse, but the Jazz need to be careful that this doesn't go down the same path. Don already does not trust the training staff, that is what he has in common with Kawhi. You don't want this to linger and for him to not trust the whole organization like Kawhi.

I just can't imagine a situation where the training staff is too shy to put Mitchell on the injury report but confident enough to rule him out a couple hours before game time. It is literally against league rules. It does feel like a power grab situation from the training staff and even if it wasn't...you have to think Don and the players feel the same way.

I also think there was a joint decision here where the training staff wanted to show their authority, but maybe the FO thought they could probably win without Don (we should have) and didn't mind being extra cautious. That's why the FO allowed it. It might have been fine if the team won or the players weren't blindsided...but you can't blindside your whole team and then lose.

Don is not the only one pissed right now. Somebody is losing their job over this. Pure ineptitude to blindside your entire team right before a playoff game.
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The more I think about it the more I agree someone getting **** canned here... for those of you that think the medical staff should survive this... how much has San Antonio's medical staff helped them the last few years without Kawhi?

I just don't know how this can be ****ed up this hard with everyone acting in good faith and competently. So go ahead and pick which one you want... incompetence or bad faith. Go ahead and blame who you want to... until the front office decides to give some clarity (they declined comment... which is just par for the course) everyone is right. Let the wild speculation run.

I've generally been cool with letting the front office slide because the devil you know is better than the devil you don't... but there has been enough dumb **** that I'm good making a pivot there.
 
Eenie-Meenie said:
Also, LeBron is playing and he obviously is not 100 percent. But he is playing because it's the playoffs and he knows the Lakers need him. And Don is a lot younger and less prone to injury.
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Bron also has his own medical staff and knows his body... the Lakers medical staff wouldn't be able to tell him nah.
 
Eenie-Meenie said:
If he was a full participant in practice, then you know that the players would have a good sense of whether or not he was ready, don't you think?
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Bogey to end his answer last night was “you’ll have to ask him” not “you’ll have to ask the medical staff”. The other players were obviously annoyed, and not just with the training staff.
 
infection said:
Any time I suggest things can enter decision-making that's influenced by a myriad of other issues not pertinent to the actual issue at hand, people act like I'm crazy,
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I hope I have never done that.

I mean, you are crazy, but we shouldn't act like that. I aim to be as crazy as you in that regard.
 
Saint Cy of JFC said:
The thing is the Jazz have one of the most highly respected medical staffs in the entire NBA, despite what some forum idiots want you to believe.
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IIRC, our organization's staff let Memo destroy himself in the playoffs. I don't blame Mitchell for seeking outside opinions.

More generally, the Jazz staff has the goal of taking care of the players in a way that benefits the Jazz. Mitchell wanted people that were solely interested in taking care of Mitchell. That sounds reasonable.
 
Eenie-Meenie said:
What do you mean? It was not Don's decision. If it were, he wouldn't be pissed or tweeting that he didn't know when he would be back.
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Simple. Image. Teammates can be annoyed with a disagreement on his sides training staff as well and the obvious tension he’s again been causing.
 
Handlogten's Heros said:
The more I think about it the more I agree someone getting **** canned here... for those of you that think the medical staff should survive this... how much has San Antonio's medical staff helped them the last few years without Kawhi?

I just don't know how this can be ****ed up this hard with everyone acting in good faith and competently. So go ahead and pick which one you want... incompetence or bad faith. Go ahead and blame who you want to... until the front office decides to give some clarity (they declined comment... which is just par for the course) everyone is right. Let the wild speculation run.

I've generally been cool with letting the front office slide because the devil you know is better than the devil you don't... but there has been enough dumb **** that I'm good making a pivot there.
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Right...no matter how you slice it, someone ****ed up really bad. If Mitchell truly cannot play, why was he not on the injury report and how did it get to the point where we blindsided our own team? If DM was ready to go, the training staff really ****ed up by attempting a power grab and costing us a playoff win.

There's probably a hint of truth to everything and all sides. But the end result is distrust between player and training staff + blindsiding your own team right before a playoff game. Not good...someone has to be fired and held accountable. It's not Don and the FO (who is guilty in any account) is not going to fire themselves. The training staff is going to be sacrificed regardless of how much "blame" they deserve.
 
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