If Donovan Mitchell wants to for sure be Rookie of the Year, he has to average 20 points per game. The voters simply cannot deny ROY honors to a man scoring that many points. They just cannot. No matter how many assists/rebounds some other rookie is averaging. The Jazz commentators are obsessed with how many 20-point games he has, and now I understand why; they know the whims of the NBA award voters, they know that they’re a bit stupid and really like round numbers, and they want to make sure everyone knows how often he scores 20.
His two games prior to this one really hurt his cause. He obviously wasn’t 100 percent, and it showed in his point totals: 2 and 9 points. Those are the games you have to sit out, Donovan. No one cares if you miss a handful of games here and there. Only play if you can play your best. Rubio can pick up the slack.
A strong performance in the dunk contest (thanks Aaron Gordon for getting injured), while a certain Aussie sits at home and eats Rocky Road ice cream straight from the tub, would also do his candidacy some good. I would suggest that he dunk over Mark Eaton for one of his dunks, but that’s already been done. I still think my idea of him dunking over Karl Malone and a bunch of his illegitimate children would be cool. See if he can do it from the free throw line.