Dillon Mitchell’s summer league has already put the spotlight on the biggest question attached to his game, and through three games in Las Vegas, the early answer has been encouraging.
When the Boston Celtics took the St. John’s wing in the second round of last month’s NBA Draft, the number that jumped out was his 6.7% three-point percentage. That’s the kind of figure that makes you stop and wonder how a player with Mitchell’s athleticism, defense, passing and overall feel slipped into the second round in the first place.
For Boston, though, the jumper doesn’t have to be the whole story. The Celtics can live with a non-shooter if everything else is loud enough, and Mitchell’s other tools are exactly what made him worth a swing.
He can defend, move the ball and bring juice everywhere else on the floor. Add a real jumper, and the pick starts to look a lot more dangerous.
Mitchell said Monday that he’s always believed in himself, and that the Celtics want him to keep shooting while still leaning into the rest of his game. “I've always been confident,” he told reporters in Las Vegas Monday.
“I always just try to make winning plays. So if there's some teams that I'm on where I don't need to be shooting, I need to try to get to other things.
That's what I'm gonna do. In this case, they want me to be comfortable and confident, and shoot the ball along with all the other things I do as well.”
That confidence has started to show up in the mechanics. Mitchell said his jumper has changed since arriving in Boston.
“Yeah, I think so,” he said of whether or not he feels like his jumper has changed since arriving in Boston. “I think as far as just shooting on the way up, and then just having confidence in it.”
The difference is visible. His form looks smoother now than it did during his season at St.
John’s, and the work appears to be paying off. In Monday’s loss to the Atlanta Hawks, Mitchell made three of his four jump shots, including one of two from deep, and also knocked down two mid-range looks while creating for himself.
He didn’t look like a player whose shot should have pushed him down the board. Mitchell took what the defense gave him, didn’t rush, and stayed balanced when the ball found him. On a summer league floor, that stood out.
Mitchell and first-round pick Chris Cenac Jr. have also been spending the last few weeks working with Boston’s coaching staff. Mitchell said the two of them got to Boston right after the draft and went straight to work.
“I mean, me and Chris landed in Boston after the draft, and I mean, we got straight to work,” he shared. “That says a lot about the culture and what they're looking out of me and Chris, just developing us, trying to get everything they can out of us. And I mean, it's just been great as far as development.”
That process, Mitchell said, has already helped build trust. He pointed to the confidence the bench has in his shot and said the little adjustments matter now, with more time to keep working once summer league ends and he gets back to Boston.
“Everybody on the bench has confidence in me shooting the ball, and it's not a lot we were able to do before summer league,” Mitchell shared. “But it's just as far as just confidence and tweaking the little things [it’s been helpful]. After summer league, when we have a lot of time, and I get back to Boston, we'll definitely even work on it a lot more.”
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