Davion Mitchell was one of the three players sent to the Miami Heat in the Jimmy Butler-Golden State Warriors trade this week.
Mitchell, a former top-10 pick, is one of the top point-of-attack defenders in the entire NBA–especially since he’s 6-foot-2 with a 6-foot-4 wingspan. He’s an excellent screen navigator, moves his feet exceptionally well and is always up in the jerseys of opposing ball-handlers with great dexterity and coordination.
He also has one of the best nicknames in the NBA: Off Night. Players that he’s tasked with hounding typically have off nights. During his introductory press conference with the Heat Sunday morning, he was asked about the origin of the nickname–which dates back to his days at Baylor.
“I think my second year at Baylor, I was guarding a lot of NBA top-draft guys that were projected to go top-10,” he said. “And they were just having bad nights when I was guarding them. Then, a couple of the (graduate assistants), who are my friends today, were saying, ‘yo, they’re having an off night. We’re going to call you Off Night.’ And we just ran with it and I took it into the (NBA).”
One of those players he went up against at Baylor was former Sacramento Kings teammate and former Iowa State guard Tyrese Haliburton, who described those nights as a “struggle bus, for sure,” during an interview in October of 2021.
He won a National Championship with Baylor in 2020-21, averaging 14.0 points with a Big-12-most 5.5 assists per game on 51.1/44.7/64.1 shooting splits. He has a championship pedigree, even though he’s been with just one winning team (Kings — 2022-23) in his four seasons.
In 44 games, he’s averaging 6.3 points and 4.6 assists on 43.4 percent shooting, including 35.9 percent from 3-point range and 67.6 percent from the 3-point line. While he does have limitations offensively, the 26-year-old guard is exactly what the Heat need defensively. There’s no telling what his role might look like, but expect Mitchell to go 125 percent on the defensive end–exuding the “heart over height” moniker.
There is more to contextualize than just raw numbers, but Trae Young, De’Aaron Fox, Jaylen Brown, Haliburton, Anthony Edwards, LaMelo Ball and Cade Cunningham are a combined 21-for-64 (32.8 percent) with 15 turnovers in 413 partial possessions against Mitchell this season. He’s going to make it tough for opposing ballhandlers every night–including a few of the league’s top aforementioned shot-creators.
Do you like Davion Mitchell’s “Off Night” nickname? Let us know in the comments!
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We got three useful additions and because of that we are a better team today without Butler. But, we still got a long way to go compared to Milwaukee, New York, Cleveland, and Boston. Watching Milwaukee and all the good players they have brought in was concerning as they beat a full Sixer team without Giannis. The Sixers are likely better too, if they ever get healthy.
I say this just to illustrate how far we have to go to be competitive. We have a lot of holes, a lot of weaknesses plugged in with players who really shouldn’t be in this league. The only players who belong are Bam, Ty, Wiggins, Ware, Rozier, Mitchell, and possibly Nico and Slo Mo. We were carried by Jimmy and it covered many flaws. But, that Jimmy was not the player who went to Golden State, so don’t feel too bad.
But, now that he’s gone, time to upgrade on the top nine players in the rotation. We can improve on everyone other than Bam, Wiggins, Ware, and Ty. We don’t have to replace all of the next four I mentioned above, but the lineup does need to get deeper and better.
We are probably as many as three top nine players, including at least one starter, away from catching up. It’s going to take more than a year, but the timeline we have is three to five years.
Make no mistake, there is a wide gulf between us and the good teams. Stop trying to fill it in with GLeaguers, and draft very carefully with the few choices we have. Get real and honest, and most of all, start looking like the rest of the league. There is a reason the other teams, “ they not like us.”
thank God that monicker was for the opposing guard not him. cant wait. Go Heat!
Off Night origin story is straight inject Heat culture right into my veins. Good stuff.