One of the teams that can blow up in the summer market is Utah. In terms of a squad made of armor, with a structure extended over time, the Salt Lake City team is one of the most consistent in recent years under the leadership of Quin Snyder. But the coach, with the interest of the Lakers as the main spur, could be the first out the door. Among the players there has been positive news, such as the improvement of the Spanish Juancho Hernangómez in the last stretch, the explosiveness of Jordan Clarkson or the conversion of Bojan Bogdanovic. The center of the project remains, at least so far, Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert or Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell. For the Frenchman, according to what is known, he is the undisputed number one.
Journalist Sean O’Connell (Sirius XM) collected on Twitter what was planted by Gobert and his entourage and explained the following: “He’s at a ‘me or him’ point with Donovan Mitchell. He’s going to trade. He doesn’t think they can win a championship together. Rudy feels their numbers are consistent and even improving while D [Mitchell] It is a drag in defense and has fallen in terms of explosiveness”. He adds, in a good job by the agents, that at least one Western Conference team would be willing to take him in and pay him what he thinks he deserves. And that his current contract is 205 million for five seasons. The player was not unaware of this information and, far from denying what was said, he went to the same social network and limited himself to posting this sentence: “Every day they have their new rumour”.
The defeat against the Mavericks in the first round of the 2022 Playoffs, missing the opportunity to hurt the rival with a Doncic affected by a muscle injury, has created the definitive hole between the two main players of the franchise.
Gobert being patient zero of the coronavirus, and after the image he gave at that press conference in which he missed the disease before the pandemic exploded in March 2020, that’s where the mistrust and bad relationship between both comes from. .
In Gobert’s eyes he may be the main protagonist, having been Defensive Player of the Year three times and progressing in his skills on both ends of the floor, but Mitchell is the one who carries the offensive weight of the Jazz and the one who has signed some of the best numbers in years. For example, his 57 points in the NBA bubble two years ago. Donovan has also been to the All-Star regularly and is a scorer who, despite not being consistent, is dangerous for any opponent. This season the shooting guard has maintained his average (25.9 points, 4.2 rebounds, 5.3 assists and 1.5 steals) playing more games. In the tie against the Mavs, a dangerous trend was even seen for the case at hand: the passes from him to Gobert reached a new low. There is no connection between the two, but what does not exist is the certainty that it will be Mitchell – in case the breakup is confirmed – the one who will go to another team.
Donovan has also positioned itself in terms of the market. his agency, CAA, has leaked that the Knicks are interested in signing him. The move has a twist: Leon Rose, the franchise’s president for sports, was recruited by New York from the same agency.
Despite being a regular team these past few seasons, the Jazz have always been a step or two short of being the true threat they were thought to be. The last six courses have gone to the playoffs, but have stayed in the conference semifinals or the first round. Too. One year less, five, Mitchell has been in the NBA and, therefore, partnering with Gobert. They have been confirmed as a regular phase team, with a balance of 49-33 in the last one, and not fang in the important games, so the title challenge is more outside than inside Utah. Taste of that 2003 in which the last great couple from Utah -and saving a lot of distance- went their separate ways: John Stockton retired and Karl Malone went to try the Lakers, where it was a fiasco and he only stayed a year .
