Y'all remember when Donovan got an 8 second call against no pressure in the clutch of that Denver playoff game?
Proof Donovan was The Issue
- Thread starter Saint Cy of JFC
- Start date
This is the mentality that often ends up being his undoing. On the surface, and if we try to pretend we don't know the context and somehow unbias ourselves, it sounds like someone is taking some kind of responsibility, which is often an important emphasis on personal development and self-awareness. However, though this superficially may appear to be a more mature statement, it actually shows less self-awareness and more situation misdiagnosis. The answer isn't "harder," "faster," or "stronger," it's really taking a step back. Donovan doesn't need to be "doing more" (on the offensive side). He needs to be calming down and being in control. It's like Marty McFly being called chicken. It only throws him off of what he does well and starts behaving in a way to compensate for insecurity that ends up working against him. My biased belief is that Donovan sees this as being "all on me" and ends up approaching the game as if everyone is on his shoulders. The answer is always "more cowbell!" We had a "historic offense" and every time our collective psyche got nervous about another perceived failure, we got higher and higher doses of offensive Donovan and negligible doses of Mike, Bojan, Joe, Rudy or Jordan. "Out of the way, guys... let this MFer go to work." That work just never seemed to... well, work.
This is why I say that if Minnesota sweeps tonight, the pressure is really on for Donovan tomorrow. His often default response to the pressure is an attempt to do more, when what is really needed is to be more aware. It's Donovan's Chinese finger trap. The natural inclination is thinking you need to get your fingers apart, which further ensnares you in the trap. As a result, you continue to perpetuate the problem in an attempt to escape it. The answer in reality the answer is to take control of this, advance your fingers to release the tension, and get out of it. His destructive tendency is to double and triple down "these are the hard shots I spend all summer working on, they just aren't falling" (paraphrase). In the back of his mind he's got some Sports Center lines running through his head, "Donovan Mitchell puts the Cavs on his back and wills them to victory!" The pressure will be quite large to not fall back 2-3 in the series if his former teammate foe just experienced a first round sweep. That grandiose Sports Center voice will push "large dose Donovan" for a sufficient amount of time to realize it's not working until anxiety then fuels the rest in believing the only way out is through and the only answer is more bites at the apple -- an even large dose of offense.
He's so incredibly talented that if he could harness this it would really be something.
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Shad
Well-Known Member
The fact that Snyder could convince another team to sign him to coach (and for 5 years) just goes to show how bad the coaching situation is right now. Anyone with eyeballs or common knowledge could see that Snyder can't coach in the playoffs. We would have made waves in the playoffs with Hardy
But why? What does Minnesota have to do with Mitchell? I think everybody would agree that Ant >>>Garland, KAT >>>Mobley etc.
I'm not speaking what (most) people will say. I'm talking about the baggage people walk around with. For Kobe and Shaq, they were each keeping an eye on each others' success, not wanting to be out-done. We had a very interesting and dramatic run with Rudy and Donovan. The underlying tension was always there and Donovan is most certainly aware of where Rudy is. As part of a more internal thing, my view is that Donovan would want to make sure that whatever Rudy is doing, he's one-upping that, or proving that the failures weren't on him or at least proving to himself that the past failures were the Rudy side of the argument.
You know, you sound like one of those folks who years later keep checking social media of their ex to find any signs that they struggle in life and rejoice. Those people usually think that everybody else is the same way and that this is normal. It isn't and many other people are not like that at all.
I have a pretty good insight into the pettiness of humans.
FrenchJazzFa
Well-Known Member
Good resume of the setries right now. This time i will defend Don and hope he can level up the next games and carry his team.
FrenchJazzFa
Well-Known Member
I think the main difference between the Jazz, Don and Rudy era and Minny right now is that everyone is involved at Minny when it's clutch time. Of course ANT get the most responsability but others do as well. Tonight Mike score all his points in the fourth quarter when he was sleeping in the corner with the jazz. They try to feed Rudy as they always do even if Rudy was awful on offense tonight. Mac Daniels, KAT score important buckets as well and of course ANT was MVP level. For me blaming only Don is not fair. Jazz issues were mainly coaching issues.
Douchebag K
Well-Known Member
I equally blame the disingenuous Don and his enabler Snyder
They've got the GOAT coming off the bench tho...
Three quarters moving the ball, one quarter Donovan iso that always seems to lose us the game....
You know, they always say that the team with the best player in the series is the one that wins. A quarter of iso is a selfless sacrifice. Gotta do it for the team.
The Thriller
Well-Known Member
I don’t think the issue for the DMRG led teams was offense. It was defense. Right now the Twolves play amazing defense. It wears the opponent down. With everyone playing defense, it limits opportunities for guys like Beal to get going. In every one of those failed series with DM, it seemed like Rudy was the only one attempting to play defense and that led to role players like Eric Gordon, Capella, Terrence Mann and Kleber to get too comfortable. Stars are gonna score. It’s limiting the role players that makes the difference. Outside of Book and KD, no one on Phx was in double figures in game 4.
Book and KD had 82 of their 116 pts.
Brutal Defense by the twolves. We could never limit a team like that.
Book and KD had 82 of their 116 pts.
Brutal Defense by the twolves. We could never limit a team like that.
Rudy has never been a petulant child.
Hardy hasn't proven anything to this point other than having an irrational love affair with mediocre vets and irrational dislike for certain talented young players.