For most of his basketball career, Donovan Mitchell’s vertical has gotten him to where he wants to go.
When he played in AAU, what were the odds that his man could keep up with Mitchell, and he’d find a defender rotating over in time to stop him from getting to the rim? When he encountered an ACC big man in the paint, what were the odds Mitchell couldn’t, in his words, “jump through, around, or over” him?
And even when he came into the NBA, the athleticism more than sufficed. He jumped in to the starting lineup in his first month.