Is Donovan Mitchell ignoring Rudy Gobert in attack? Quin Snyder’s response

Usually, pre-match press conferences last 10 minutes. We talk about the opponent, possible injuries, and the form of the players coming out of the shootaround. On Tuesday, Quin Snyder doubled down because he had things to say. For a week, the Jazz has not been at its best, between humiliating defeats on the ground, and more or less direct verbal sparring between the stars of the team.

First, he defended the qualities of his team in the “money time”. The Jazz have made a specialty of wasting big leads, including two recently against the Clippers and the Warriors, and he gave his version of the facts.

« Often people use stats to write an article, and it’s important to do so responsibly. he warned. ” I think we all agree that it’s different to lead by 10 points in the first quarter than to lead by 10 points in the 4th quarter.« .

Per game, Donovan Mitchell makes only two assists to Rudy Gobert

Clearly, he would like the press to focus only on the meetings where the Jazz led by 10 points or more in the 4th quarter, and the record is then 3 wins for 4 losses. According to the Salt Lake Tribune, if we look at the lead of 10 points and more over the whole game, the record is 3 wins for 12 losses…

But Quin Snyder would also like us to take into account the fact that the Jazz were leading by 10 points and more, and that is a sign that the team was playing well. ” We can observe that and say to ourselves, we have lost our lead, but in seven matches, we have also come back to score three times, and that means that we are a team that is hanging on. It also means that we were playing very well because we were leading by more than 10 points in the 4th quarter. Most of the time, I prefer to lead by more than 10 points, than by less than 10 points.. »

Then, another subject that annoys him, the idea that Donovan Mitchell the personal cheek, and that he ignores Rudy Gobert in attack. This week, a stat came out, and it hurts: Donovan Mitchell averages two passes per game to Rudy Gobert. We are not talking about assists, but just about assists… Those who criticize Donovan Mitchell have also released, for comparison, Trae Young’s stats for Clint Capela.

“Trae Young and Capela, is that the chosen comparison? OK, so we know that out of 3,442 possessions, Young made 472 passes for Capela. For Donovan Mitchell, we have 1,600 possessions and 150 assists for Rudy. Roughly speaking, it’s the same proportion, that’s right, isn’t it? »

Quin Snyder tries to calm down critics

Again, the daily takes Quin Snyder at his word, and Trae Young makes 14% of his passes for Capela, while Donovan Mitchell makes 9% of his passes for Rudy Gobert. But … it’s much less than that because the Cleaning the Glass site counts 2,351 possessions where Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert were together on the ground.

According to the Jazz’s communications manager, Quin Snyder only considered possessions where Mike Conley was also on the field with them.

Beyond the advanced stats, which he did not choose very well, Quin Snyder wants to defend his rear. ” Let’s not try to create confusion between some of these players, and especially by using stats. We should be more responsible than that. We don’t play super well all the time. We want better player. But we will not succeed by trying to say that a player does not pass to another. »

For him, the idea that Donovan Mitchell is snubbing Rudy Gobert in attack does not make sense.

“The idea that Donovan doesn’t calculate Rudy when he’s well placed under the circle…” sighs Quin Snyder without finishing his sentence.. “It gets to a point where when Donovan answers questions on the subject, we infer here that he does not give him passes and that there is a problem between the two … Personally, I do not see the all that. »