As much as Ben Simmons and Donovan Mitchell were off-court adversaries in the eyes of the NBA public last season while they competed for Rookie of the Year honors, they never really had a chance to play against each other as that narrative was developing.
In their first matchup last year on Nov. 7, Mitchell didn’t start, but somehow shot 3-of-21 off the bench anyway. Despite that, and believing in Mitchell’s potential, Quin Snyder started him in the next game. And their last matchup of the season came less than two weeks later, when the Jazz had won just two of their previous ten games, and Mitchell didn’t play well again, picking up a frustration technical against Joel Embiid.