Getty Donovan Mitchell goes up for a shot against the Detroit Pistons during January 5th's win.
Is the Utah Jazz’s Donovan Mitchell the NBA’s modern day Dwyane Wade?
“Yes,” Retired NBA Champion and current ESPN NBA Analyst Kendrick Perkins tells me on the Heavy Live With Scoop B Show.
“By the way he moves through the lane, how crafty he is, even with the walk with the shoulders and all.”
That’s high praise.
Donovan Mitchell was the Utah Jazz’s 13th overall pick in the 2017 NBA draft out of the University of Louisville. Last season, Mitchell averaged 24 points, 4.4 rebounds, 4.3 assists and one steal per contest for a Jazz team that finished 44-28 and in sixth place in the NBA’s Western Conference standings.
A Westchester County, New York native and an NBA Slam Dunk Contest winner in 2018, Mitchell kicked it into overdrive in the NBA Playoffs and became one of two NBA players to score at least 50 points twice in the same series.
Mitchell averaged 36.3 points, five rebounds and 4.9 assists in seven games in the NBA bubble.
Dwyane Wade was the Miami Heat’s fifth pick in the 2003 NBA Draft coming out of Marquette.
The speedy rookie guard got the world’s attention in game one of the Heat’s first round playoff series against the New Orleans Hornets in 2004.
Kendrick Perkins on @spidadmitchell, @DwyaneWade: “When you look at D-Wade when he first came in, he was dunking everything, he was super athletic.”
“That’s who Donovan Mitchell is. Chase down blocks & all that? Yeah. He IS the modern day D-Wade.” – t.co/4kOTItLvSJ
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With 1.3 seconds remaining and tied at 79 apiece, Wade hit Hornets point guard Baron Davis with an ankle breaker crossover and drove to the basket making a running jumper amid the outstretched arm of Hornets center Jamaal Magloire. The basket gave the Heat a 81-79 victory and Miami would end up winning the series in seven games.
A winner of three NBA Championships all with the Miami Heat, Wade won rings in both eras of the Heat’s dynasties. The first dynasty with the Heat came when Miami made a trade for Shaquille O’Neal. Two years after that trade, the Heat added Gary Payton, Antoine Walker, Jason Williams and James Posey and won the 2006 NBA Finals after beating the Dirk Nowitzki-led Dallas Mavericks.
LeBron James and Chris Bosh would later arrive in South Beach and helped Wade win two more rings.
Wade would have later stints with the Chicago Bulls and the Cleveland Cavaliers before finding his way back home to Miami in a trade.
GettyDwyane Wade with LeBron James.
Wade retired from basketball in 2019.
Meanwhile back at the ranch: With a roster that includes Rudy Gobert, Bojan Bogdaovic, Jordan Clarkson, Derrick Favors, Mike Conley Jr., Joe Ingles, and more, Donovan Mitchell is looking to compete at a high level in the NBA’s Western Conference.
So far this season, Mitchell is averaging 20.3 points, five assists and 1.7 steals per contest for a Jazz team that currently sits at 2-1 and in fourth place in the NBA’s Western Conference standings.
Mitchell came on to the NBA scene in 2017 and Kendrick Perkins likes what he sees in him. Perkins believes that the Mitchell/Wade comparisons are uncanny. “It’s something about his whole swag,” he told Heavy Live With Scoop B.
“It is D-Wade-ish. And I think when you look at D-Wade when he first came in, he was dunking everything, he was super athletic and that’s who Donovan Mitchell is. Chase down blocks and all that? Yeah. He IS the modern day D-Wade.”