Was Donovan Mitchell keeping himself out in the 4th quarter selfless?

0:00You got to say, man, I just want to apologize with picking the calf to get to the 5th. Then you're half way through game 5. Ernie, what you see, no team is going to get to the champion playing like the last three games. They have played three bad games, two bad games, the half in a row. Like, they don't value the basketball. They don't play with, you can't win with consistent players. And Shaqin can't even know. When you're on a good team, there's a sense of urgency. There's no sense of urgency with this KIT. Who are you apologizing to? I'm America. I've been bound booze, hood, weak, leather strength. Well, that's what you've done to America too. Charles Barkley, last night, the inside the NBA crew, courtesy of ESPN, by the way. I'll admit it. That was mad enough of the Cavaliers and half time last night. I think we all were. We laughed pretty hard about that. I was getting ready to order like a Kings hat or something like that. Online and then bringing in and presenting to you with a ball noir certificate or something like that.

1:01And then the rest of the game happened. Because that's why you have to watch the whole rest of the game. So your ball noir status, although I've given it to you before. Is it still TBD? I think for a lot of the basketball community, it might be. I'm not sure. Well, the heart and take, maybe you just want to race it all and throw it in the trash. The ball noir certificate. I ripped it right up on the spot, threw it away. Can't have it. But yeah, it was going to be a whole celebration of a presentation for yourself and everything. And now you just have to wait and see. I would rather be, be known as a non ball noir and the calves actually get through this series. They will, they'll get through this. Yeah, I don't, the funny thing is, again, at no point, no matter how much bad basketball, if you really doubted this series, it's really what does it do to the ceiling, which of this team, which is kind of what Chuck is pointing at? Yeah, so I, it's funny. I'll show you my Texan between the break if you actually want to see them. But like at the third quarter, I was texting with our buddy, Fink. And I was like, Raptors can't keep this up. Like anybody that's watched Toronto basketball, no, they can't keep this up. They won't reach it up. Yeah, which you could be Walter is liking her ass up. You just know, like, Walter's not going to stay the hottest three pointer

2:03and league history for any sort of stretch. And so like, it was just a matter of waiting it out. But the way that cabs Twitter and cabs basketball seems to work is everyone overreacts so quick. And they don't even let the game finish. And then the blink of an eye. Obviously, if everything you thought about, let's say even Evan Mobile in the first half is completely different in the second half. All right. Can I ask you when when Charles says a lack of urgency or lack of, you know, self-starterism? Oh, I think it was right. Oh, he is. But isn't that, aren't we just talking about a team that is like, when the vibes are great, they're great. And when the vibes go down a little bit, they're not. No, it's more, I think it's more about the idea that they've looked in the Toronto series, the games in Toronto, they looked like they've been sleepwalking. And I think that's part of the problem. And it like the, this even goes back to not getting over the eight second violation. And you watched Donovan's reaction to that. And he just looks like, oh, guys, I just lost a possession instead of like, that was a really urgent play that you had to make there. They just seem so non-plus. They just seem so like, all right, we can come and go. And I think that's what Charles is getting at. I don't think it's anything to do with the good vibes,

3:03bad vibes out of this. Now, while we're talking about the calves, and again, they won last night. And I don't give a rat's ass how they won. You won. That's the point of the playoffs. And I think all this team is really showing is that they need more time on the court together. They need more time to gel and to learn each other. And for Kenny Atkinson to learn each other. And that might put their long-term ceiling, at least this year, in jeopardy. But one of the big storylines was not just Donovan and having a terrible, bad, no good game last night. It was Donovan being kept out at crucial points to the first quarter, which Kenny Atkinson talked about after the game. Well, I was going to put Donovan and Evan back in and they said, no, this group's rolling. I was like, what? Like, that never happens in the NBA. But that shows Donovan, he's so selfless. I think there's four minutes left. I think they just scored a bucket. Now, when they scored another bucket, I did get them in. I said, come on. But they knew that group was doing well

4:04and wanting to keep them out there, both him and Evan. All right. So this is the kind of thing that if you had lost that game, I don't know how you'd come back if you don't have enough. But you won the game. It wouldn't have come out if they had lost again. That's fair. That's fair. And I think this was more about Atkinson trying to, I think, pump up Donovan and try to give him credit and try to make him seem like, hey, what a selfless guy. But it just makes Atkinson look really poor. Yeah. No, I think it's the worst look for Donovan. And I want to hold my hand up. I don't really care. They won the game. And so whether it's true or not, whether it's a motivational tactic, whether it's somehow covering for Donovan and maybe taking the heat of, oh, I let Donovan make the decision. So it's really a coaching. Oh, you got it. You got to explain for why you only played seven minutes in the fourth. Like there has to be an answer that he knows that's going to get asked. So if you can get ahead of it and be like, no, Donovan was the good guy. What a selfless number one he is. I think that maybe that was the angle. I think that probably is. But I know that probably is.

5:05I think that is whether the case here, at least the angle is going with. So again, I, they won. I'm not going to, I don't feel like I need to criticize them overly in a win here. That said, how we view great players in the NBA, that everybody's held to the Michael Jordan standard. The Michael Jordan would saw off his legs. If it meant getting out of the court quicker and having a chance to win a game five seconds earlier, like we, the Kobe Bryant, the Mamba mentality. LeBron has been hammered for passing in key moments and letting other people take the big shot. Even though that's LeBron's game. Right. I went in the corner. Yeah. Everybody in NBA is held to the standard. If you're a superstar. So I certainly, I, I don't agree with the criticism of Donovan. But I do understand this is the, this is the biggest, the one of the three biggest narratives in the NBA. It was just a, it's an, it's an odd thing for Donovan to have said. Because as you mentioned, like anyone that's great in the NBA, they think they're the best plan always. Even if they're not shooting well, they think they're the best answer.

6:06Even if they're not. Well, I just wonder. Like Ricky Davis still thinks he could go out there and win an NBA championship is the best player. What's that? Is that the Mario Chalmers mind that he had with the heat where he just, he's convinced he's some combination of like Michael Jordan. He's Kobe Bryant. I'm butchering the two legends, but you get the point. Like that's, I mean, it's insane. The confidence these guys typically have in themselves, which does have me a little worried is Donovan. Does he have a, is he have a confidence issue right now? Is that the heart of the struggles over the previous three games? Is he not, is he not believing in himself as much in these spots? Because like the, the Donovan that's supposed to be what he has been in his career once the ball in that moment. So here's the problem. I don't think that is the case. I don't think he's having a confidence issue. I think Donovan is, I think, I think Donovan is confident in his team. And I don't, I really like, I'm not seeing a player that's lacking confidence. He's just lacking results. And I do think those are two different things. That said, when you play that bad as he has for two of the last three games and you, you say, not keep these guys in. They got the hot hand.

7:06That is something people are going to ask. And it is a fair question to ask. And so my defense is, I don't think so. I guess the next two games will tell, right? Yeah, I mean, I just, I just want to see Donovan get it right. That's ultimately what I want to see. I just, I just, I don't, I don't know. I don't know, I don't know that he will. And I mean, the cool thing about this is they're going to win games six more likely than not. And then you have a brand new series. And you have brand new series gives you brand new matchups, brand new everything. But wouldn't you think if it's Orlando or Detroit, they would just copy exactly what Toronto's done and trying to take them out of these games? I mean, that's why I think Toronto is down three two. Because Toronto took three games to copy what Detroit and Orlando have done previously. Not to reverse engineer what you're saying. But like, I think it was what three days ago, we were like, how the hell did it take Toronto two games to understand? If you get physical with the calves and, you know, push up them on offense, they get really a non-conference. They haven't been as effective at just shutting Donovan down for as long as they have. Like Donovan, we even brought up the Indiana series last year. He had two 40 point games in there in the closed out in game five with 36.

8:06Like he'd always been able to get his. And he'd always been able to do whatever he wanted and within this. And even in the fourth quarter, I thought Donovan might have found a little bit of an answer. They're not in the fourth quarter, the third quarter. Might have found a little bit of an answer as to how to beat him. But it's taken him two plus games in order to try to get there. I mean, I think like this is, I think it used to just be easier to shut down other guys on the calves because you did have Darius who was smaller, not as strong. And I think you saw teams throw a lot of length at Darius. And I think that opened up things for Donovan, right? Like I think there has been a, almost like a little brawn principle like, hey, Donovan can score 30 points in this game because if nobody else scores, then we're going to win the game, right? Well, Darius isn't here to throw bodies at anymore to throw the length at. So I think because Donovan's more often and not the shortest guy, smallest guy on the court, like he's getting kind of that treatment now. I think it's, all right. Well, James, James is going to do what James is going to do. There's going to be some really good with that and there's going to be some turnovers with that. We can live and die with that.

9:07He's going to get defensive attention. I'm not saying he's not. But now let's just throw a lot more defensive attention towards Donovan and keep him up by the three point line and not let him make some momentum plays in the post. Donovan is almost, you heard the audio with him last night though. He's almost like swarving into it. He acknowledged that like if he goes, if he goes to one side of the perimeter and just brings all that attention, it opens everything up for everybody. And that was kind of, it just kind of felt like that's been his goal. But he's still trying to shoot a ton in the process. That's where he's missing all of us. He's drawing all the attention, which would work. If he's just then, you know, passing the ball and getting everyone else involved. He took 17 shots last night. And a lot of these are contested and he was nowhere close. So I do think that in the criticism, all of which is fair. Donovan is the face of the franchise. Donovan is the best player on this team. Everything is built for Donovan to be the best player, right? It's not the perfect situation. Find me the guys who have everything rolling up to them in the perfect situation. It really doesn't happen in the NBA. The perfect situation is more often than not.

10:07Don't exist. You're making the best of what you have, right? That being said, all of the Donovan stuff is fair. I do think we're all missing in the game of whack-a-mo with Donovan. I think we're missing the best point here. They want a game where Donovan wasn't your best player. And where Donovan was not effective on... Like, I think that's one of the things the team really needs to learn if they're going to win a championship ever with Donovan. Is there going to be nights where Donovan is in Superman? He's not LeBron. It's going to be nights where they just throw something at him and Donovan can't respond. Right, right. And if you win that game, I don't give rats, you know what? However, any of it looks. That's as good of a win as you can get when Donovan looks that way. Again, the Donovan stuff is... I'm not saying don't criticize Donovan. It's fair. That was bad. And him not going out there. That's another thing that we hold our best players, our face-to-the-franchise, to very specific levels. At the same point, keep looking at this and go, wait, wait, wait. So Donovan played like that.

11:07Donovan was non-existent at points. And you still got this win? Okay. Again, it was... You just needed to win. The style points were there to win. But man, winning when Donovan plays like that is something that teams that end up winning championships in a year end up doing. But this is why I think, like, this is why it's... It's so important, Evan Mobile can stay at the level he was at last night. Like Evan hitting those threes, Evan taking over in that fourth quarter and being the way that we've seen him be at certain parts of the season, like it just makes everything so much better with this offense and it just doesn't put you in holes. And like, and Donovan having Evan to maybe pick up some of the slack in those moments has just became huge. All right. Was Donovan being selfless or did he not want it? I think he... I don't think he wanted it. People are not... They're not going to like that. But I have no evidence to suggest that he wanted it in that spot. I just have so much evidence of Donovan having that dog in him. I don't know why the Toronto Raptors would take the dog out. Then he was clearly telling Atkinson he thinks Atkinson is an idiot in that moment.

12:09How so? It's either one or the other. It's either he didn't want it. Or in that spot he thought Atkinson was so galaxy stupid, next level stupid in that moment that he had a correctist coach to be like, I'm not the call right now. You got to let these other guys cook. Or he was genuinely being selfless, which is something we have a pretty significant track record of. But what also would also go in conflict with the idea that he thought Atkinson was making the right decision. If he's being selfless in that spot, then he thinks Atkinson and putting himself in is in fact the wrong call.