Donovan Mitchell

After discussions between Utah and New York failed to gain necessary traction, Cleveland emerged as a suitor for the three-time All-Star guard. Mitchell joins a talented young roster with All-Star point guard Darius Garland, All-Star center Jarrett Allen and an extremely promising forward in Evan Mobley. It may take some time for Garland and Mitchell to figure out the give-and-take in usage, but neither player should take a massive hit. Mitchell is coming off his age 25 season with averages of 25.6 points on 45/36/85 shooting, 5.3 assists, 4.2 rebounds and 1.5 steals in 33.8 minutes. He ranked 18th in fantasy last season on a per-game basis, which figures to take a hit playing next to Garland, but Mitchell has never ranked worse than 44th. As a result, managers should still feel comfortable selecting Mitchell in the third round.

Last season marked Mitchell's second consecutive All-Star selection. In 33.4 minutes per game, the shooting guard averaged career highs in points (26.4), assists (5.2) and three-point percentage (38.6). The result was the best per-game fantasy production of his career, as he ranked 34th overall. Yet again, Mitchell was excellent in the postseason. Over his past 17 career playoff games, he's averaged 33.9 points on 48/46/88 shooting, 5.2 assists, 4.5 rebounds and 1.1 steals. Mitchell's varied offensive repertoire and excellent athleticism has made him difficult to guard since he entered the league, but he's been coming into his own more of late. The increase in assists is a great sign, and he also attempted a career-high 6.0 free-throw attempts per game last season. He might be surrounded by too much talent to be a 30 point-per-game player, but that also allows Mitchell the opportunity to hone in on his efficiency, playmaking and defense. Fantasy managers know exactly what they're getting out of Mitchell at this point. He has one of the highest floors of any non-All-NBA player and is an easy selection in the third round of most fantasy drafts.

Mitchell continues to make only marginal strides to his game since his excellent rookie debut in 2017-18. He remained a quality third-to-fourth round option in 2019-20, averaging 24.0 points, 4.4 rebounds, 4.3 assists and 1.0 steals in 34.3 minutes. However, his playoff performance against the Nuggets in the first round was one for the history books and suggests he has another level to his game that he could tap into for 2020-21. In that series, Mitchell averaged 36.3 points, 5.0 rebounds, 4.9 assists and 1.0 steals, which included two 50-point outbursts. Mitchell's durability is also a selling point, as he's missed just 11 games in his career. Conservative fantasy managers can bank on his high floor, while those on the more aggressive side can point to his excellent playoff performance as a reason to take the plunge early. As a result, he'll likely be highly sought after in most fantasy leagues and could be a popular option in the second round.

Mitchell followed up an impressive rookie season with an even better second-year performance, reaching new career highs in points (23.8), assists (4.2) and rebounds (4.1). He drained 2.4 threes per tilt for the second straight season, boosting his three-point percentage to a respectable 36.2. The Louisville product contributed on the defensive side of the ball too, swiping 1.4 steals for the second year in a row. Mitchell had a huge role for the Jazz last season, logging a 30.9 usage rate, good for seventh in the NBA among players with at least 1900 minutes. He's likely to see that hefty usage rate decrease in 2019-20 with the addition of Mike Conley, who is a better all-around scorer and playmaker than former Jazz point guard Ricky Rubio. Conley will handle some of the backcourt load and enable Mitchell to play off-ball more frequently. New forward Bojan Bogdanovic could cut into Mitchell's production as well, given his natural scoring abilities. Even though his role may diminish slightly this season, Mitchell is still one of the best young guards in the league and will provide solid fantasy contributions in most categories, making him a clear early-round selection in all formats.

Drafted with the 13th overall pick in the 2017 Draft, Mitchell was expected to hold a relatively small rotational role on the Jazz during his rookie year. However, the Louisville product came out of the gates hot, scoring 22 points on 9-of-16 shooting during his sixth NBA game, being inserted into the starting five just six games later. He never looked back from there, filling the void created by Gordon Hayward’s departure. A favorite among some to win Rookie of the Year, Mitchell was able to lead Utah to the playoffs on the back of an especially strong post-All-Star break stint. During his final 24 appearances, Mitchell averaged 22.5 points, 4.3 rebounds, 4.1 assists and 1.6 steals. Throughout the year, Mitchell was also able to put together five 30-point games, two 40-point games, 25 games with at least five assists and 13 performances with three or more steals. Considering Mitchell posted a 29.1 percent usage rate during his rookie campaign, it may be difficult for him to improve on his overall volume heading into 2018-19. However, there remains room for him to improve as a shooter, as he shot a fair, but not great, 43.7 percent from the field and 34.0 percent from beyond the arc. And, considering how much he handles the ball for the Jazz, he may be looking to improve as a passer. Regardless, Mitchell already has the makings of an up-and-coming star in the NBA.

Mitchell is a 6-foot-3 combo guard out of Louisville with an imposing 6-foot-10 wingspan and top-tier athleticism, which helps smooth out his lack of size. He projects to be a near-NBA-ready defender right out of the gate, as he averaged 2.1 steals per game last season as a sophomore, leading the ACC. Mitchell also posted 15.6 points, 4.9 boards and 2.7 assists across 32.3 minutes while making 40.8 percent of his attempts from the field while hitting 2.4 threes per game at a 35.4 percent clip. Two things may stop Mitchell from having an impactful Fantasy season – his workload and his offensive readiness, or lack thereof. He’ll be joining a Jazz roster filled with guards such as Ricky Rubio, Dante Exum, Rodney Hood, Joe Johnson and others. He also wasn’t a particularly efficient player in college, which generally doesn’t bode well for rookies. All in all, Mitchell can probably be looked over in the majority of Fantasy formats during his first run as a professional.