Donovan Mitchell Named Player Of The Month
Jan 4, 2022, 1:07 PM
Utah Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell (Photo by Alex Goodlett/Getty Images)
(Photo by Alex Goodlett/Getty Images)
SALT LAKE CITY – Donovan Mitchell has been named the NBA’s Western Conference Player of the Month for the month of December.
The Utah Jazz guard averaged 30.2 points, 5.0 assists, and 3.2 rebounds per game while helping lead his team to an impressive 12-2 record for the month.
This is the first time Mitchell has been named the NBA’s Player of the Month, though he won Rookie of the Month four different times during his inaugural NBA season.
Congratulations to Donovan on being named the Western Conference Player of the Month for December 🕷🕷🕷#NBAAllStar | @spidadmitchell pic.twitter.com/u6OczMNYM8
— Utah Jazz (@utahjazz) January 4, 2022
The guard does have three previous Player of the Week awards, more recently earning the nod for the first week of December, foreshadowing his Player of the Month award.
Mitchell is the first Jazz player to win the award in more than a decade, dating back to Deron Williams being named Western Conference Player of the Month in November of 2010.
It also marks only the 12th time in team history that a Jazz player has won the award, and Mitchell becomes only the fifth player to suit up in Utah to take home the honors.
John Stockton was the first Jazz player to be named Western Conference Player of the Month, earning the nod in February of 1988.
Karl Malone would win the award the very next month, marking the first of seven Player of the Month nods during his Hall of Fame career with the Jazz.
SPIDA DROPPED HIM 😱 pic.twitter.com/FcVT93Qv5d
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) January 4, 2022
All-Star forward Carlos Boozer won the award twice, being named Player of the Month in November of 2007 and February of 2010 before Williams last earned the award.
Mitchell opened the month with three consecutive outings scoring 34 points or more and broke the 30 point mark six times in his 12 games, including a season-high 39 point outing against the Minnesota Timberwolves on New Year’s Eve.
For the season, Mitchell is averaging 25.7 points, 5.1 assists, and 3.9 rebounds while shooting a career-high 47 percent from the floor and 87 percent from the three-point line.
