At least the Lakers are getting beat down by the Jazz.
The Jazz are the Nuggets of last year. A good team, but you still can’t see them winning it all.
They are pretenders. Just like the heat last year. They will get exposed by either of the LA teams.
I am impressed with Utah.
I don't think they are like say the Hawks team of a few years ago that won 60 games and the reason why I say that is Donovan Mitchell. I feel like he is under-rated in a specific way and that is -- offensive resilience.
He gets fair criticism for his inability to be highly efficient. He doesn't create high percentage shots at the clip of other superstar offensive players because he cannot and he isn't one of them. But what he can do is create good percentage shots for his team (for himself and for others) at a high clip.
Compare Mitchell to say DeRozan in his Toronto playoff years. DeRozan was a player who was vulnerable to big athletic wing defenders and teams with this type of a defender could wreck his offensive game in the playoffs and they did. DeRozan was one of the worst efficiency high volume scorers in the playoffs ever. Even superstars like Giannis, if you have the right defenders you can key in on him and make him less effective and derail his team's offenses.
Mitchell is not like this. He can create good offense regardless of his opponent. It is not great offense. It is not high value offense. But it is good offense. He can do it against anyone and any type of defense. His quickness, his ball-handling, his outside shooting, his floaters in the lane, his pull up midrange, his finishing at the hoop, his playmaking off the dribble to create for others. He is more well-rounded as a scorer & passer than all those other stars (medium efficiency & high efficiency) who failed.
And Mitchell is surrounded by the ideal teammates to free him up. Loads of three point shooting. Gobert as a rim roller. Some secondary scorers in Conley, Bogdanovic and Clarkson.
This is a different type of team than many of the other regular season wonderboys playoff failures and they are different for precisely one reason - Donovan Mitchell.