2018 NBA Draft: Who will be the next Donovan Mitchell?
By Amaar Burton
Just like Rookie of the Year finalist Donovan Mitchell, someone in the 2018 NBA Draft class is going to get a team executive fired.
Donovan Mitchell may have already claimed the first victim of his NBA success.
When the Detroit Pistons relieved head coach and team president Stan Van Gundy of his duties on May 7, one contributing factor may have been Van Gundy’s decision last summer to draft Duke shooting guard Luke Kennard with the No. 12 pick — one spot before Louisville shooting guard Donovan Mitchell was selected.
Kennard had a decent rookie season, mostly coming off the bench and averaging 7.6 points in 20 minutes per game for the lottery-bound Pistons.
Mitchell, on the other hand, was a revelation for the Utah Jazz. He averaged 20.5 points per game in the regular season and led his team to the playoffs, where he scored 28.5 points per game in a first round upset victory over the star-studded Oklahoma City Thunder.
The Jazz were eliminated in the second round by the top-seeded Houston Rockets, but by then Mitchell had already established himself as one of the NBA’s breakout stars of 2017-18. He should finish no lower than second place in the league’s Rookie of the Year voting when the award is handed out on June 25.
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NBA executives make draft-day mistakes and miss on prospects all the time. One regrettable choice isn’t enough by itself to cost a man his job. But in addition to the list of Van Gundy’s missteps with the Pistons and lack of real progress with the franchise during his four-year reign, missing on Mitchell probably didn’t help his case to remain in charge in Detroit.
There might be others on Mitchell’s hit list.
Charlotte Hornets general manager Rich Cho was fired in February, a few months after he drafted Kentucky shooting guard Malik Monk (6.7 points per game) two spots ahead of Mitchell. And you’d have to imagine that whoever made the call for the Denver Nuggets to trade Mitchell for Trey Lyles and Tyler Lydon on draft night is hoping their boss isn’t a Mitchell fan.
Will there be a Donovan Mitchell in the 2018 NBA Draft? Which player in this year’s class will have his name brought up when another team’s executive is being shown the door? Here are four potential candidates.