The Raptors backup guard battle: Davion Mitchell

A battle between a two-way player who has spent most of his time in the G-League, a back-of-the-second-round, second round draft pick from this year, and a former lottery pick who was salary dumped this offseason.

All three guards have significant question marks around large portions of their game, and they’ve all distinguished themselves as great ball pressure guards at different levels – Collegiate (Jamal Shead), G-League (DJ Carton), and NBA (Davion Mitchell). These things aren’t created equal, of course, Mitchell was namedropped by Shead for a reason and Mitchell is objectively one of the best POA defenders in the world. He’s also, at this point, had by far the most NBA possessions to try things out as a lead guard, a secondary guard, and as a backup, now at 26 years old. Shead is the youngest, at 22, and Carton is smack dab in the middle at 24. None are young enough to expect random, exceptional, outlier development, and the guard who merits the most attention on offense, is considered the weakest on defense.

This seems like low stakes stuff, and it is lower in stakes than many things around the NBA, but Jamal Shead’s candid answer about the speed of the NBA made me rethink it. Alex Sarr had just finished telling us about how the speed of the game was something he had to get adjusted to, and when I told Shead about that comment and asked for his insights he said: “When Davion is guarding you it is really hard. So, I tried to slow down a little bit today. With him not in front of you, everything kind of opened up.” He’d later go on to say: “Iron sharpens iron.”

I think there’s a lot of utility in having an undersized, gritty point guard on a roster. The Raptors won a championship with two undersized-but-gritty-as-hell guards not only on the roster, but in the rotation. There are finer details about point-guarding, setting the table, and having a ball pressure demon can be a great way to amp up the intensity of practices. The Raptors have a bevy of them on the roster — but most teams don’t carry three, or even two — none of them have much contract security, and I’m left to wonder who has the best shot to last with the Raptors.

Even to think back on it, other point guards didn’t really survive the Raptors during the Lowry-era if they weren’t at least a plus on defense. Greivis Vasquez didn’t last long, neither did Lou Williams. Delon Wright and Fred VanVleet were both positives on that end. Even after Lowry left, the Raptors had trouble filling the backup guard role when Malachi Flynn didn’t pan out as expected. Hmm, something to think about.

First up, let’s discuss Davion Mitchell

Mitchell stands the best chance, probably. Having an elite NBA skill, and that skill being a whole side of the floor is a big deal. Especially with the Raptors new focus and appreciation for ball pressure, Mitchell has a chance to shine bright on that end. In his time with Sacramento his playmaking was fairly rote and one note. He’s never registered more than a point per possession as a pick n’ roll ball handler, his assist-percentage has never been stellar, and he’s been housed in a high-powered offense that protected against his weaknesses. However, the role Mitchell eventually shared next to De’Aaron Fox on occasion is probably the one he will share next to both Immanuel Quickley & Scottie Barnes.

Mitchell crept his downtown marksmanship up to 36-percent last year and turned the ball over less than ever. The directive was clear from the Kings: try not to be harmful on offense, shine bright on defense. Unfortunately, the Kings were still much worse with Mitchell on the floor (both offensively and defensively). The silver lining is that when Mitchell shared the floor with Fox & Domantas Sabonis, the numbers were terrific.

Of course, it’s much easier to win minutes when you play with great players. The Raptors have at least one great player in Barnes who should be able to shoulder a lot of the load on that end – and quite frankly, I think Barnes is as good or better than Sabonis. Fox and Quickley is a more sizable gap that borders on a chasm, but Quickley is good. In fact, RJ Barrett is good and Jakob Poeltl is good. The Raptors have an expensive starting lineup, a good starting lineup, and one that will win minutes.

The swing position in the starting lineup is the position that Mitchell should play most of his minutes in, and it’s the position where he found the most success in Sacramento – shooting guard. Mitchell’s presence in a starting lineup that should be able to score efficiently and often, is that of point-of-attack stopper, and Lord Protector of Quickley. Quickley, who struggled immensely at the ‘POA’ and whose defensive reputation hinges on his clever off-ball play, well he can slump back into something comfortable at the drop of a hat. None of this is to say that Mitchell is the best equipped guard on the Raptors roster to do backup point guard stuff – I don’t think he is, truthfully – but it’s easy to see how he fits into important lineups, and that is, well, important.

We’ll get to see how the 26 year old guard comports himself as a point guard too, I’m sure, but those are hypotheticals that can become known later. For now, we’re trying to make educated guesses (is there a difference between this and hypotheticals? Tough to say) about the stuff that makes sense. The early look of this team, of the backup guard position, is one that features Mitchell heavily.

Have a blessed day.

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