The Heat’s Swiss Army Knife! Davion Mitchell Proves Indispensable with His Versatile Skillset

As the Miami Heat take on the Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday night, it will be another display of the team’s new additions in Andrew Wiggins, Kyle Anderson, and especially Davion Mitchell. The new Heat players were acquired when they traded Jimmy Butler to the Golden State Warriors which was a multi-team deal, but the underrated piece in the package was Mitchell.

The Baylor product was traded from the Toronto Raptors as part of the Butler trade as he was a former first-round pick by the Sacramento Kings in the 2021 NBA Draft. While he’s known for his defensive intensity, his playmaking ability was on full display in his debut Monday in the Heat’s loss to the Boston Celtics.

Miami head coach Erik Spoelstra would say to ClutchPoints that he was “encouraged” to see the performance of Mitchell who showed off his passing ability, especially in the absence of Heat star Tyler Herro.

“Yeah, we’ll give him clarity on what he needs to do,” Spoelstra said. “It’ll look different with Tyler in there, but I did. I was encouraged by the playmaking. He was able to get the ball back to Bam, a couple times get the ball to Wiggs, he’ll be able to get the ball to Tyler where he needs to. So we give him clarity on that.”

Mitchell recorded four early assists, including one which he zipped across the court to his new teammate and Miami star Andrew Wiggins for a three-pointer.

Plus his ability to defend at a high level, this wasn’t a shock at all to someone like Bam Adebayo who mentioned how the team played Mitchell’s former team in the Raptors where he stood out.

“I mean, we’ve played against Davion a lot,” Adebayo said to ClutchPoints. “It’s not just, you know, the defense doesn’t shock us at all. I mean, they’ve been calling the man ‘Off Night’ since college, so you understand what he brings on that side. But you know, we played against him and see how he can manipulate the game in ways of, you know, his passing and how quick he is and being able to read the game, you know, in quick situations. So, like I said, once we get him comfortable and he understands, he can really run the show and we’ll make a run.”

Heat’s Davion Mitchell on his versatility

It was a frustrating night for the Heat’s newcomers and just the team in general against the Celtics as Mitchell would record only four points on two-for-eight shooting from the field, missing all four of his deep attempts, four assists, and two rebounds. He would start the game along with Wiggins where Mitchell is likely to be a starter in the near future.

He would also speak about his “jack of all trades” like prototype where he can impact the game at any angle, though he said Monday after the game that he’s been labeled with a “tag” and defense.

“I think that being in the NBA you kind of get this tag when you’re really good defensively, and you had bad stretches offensively and where you was before, and now it’s like, ‘oh, he can’t play offense.’ I think I’m a really good playmaker,” Mitchell said. “I’ve shown it before…but it is what it is. I feel like I can make plays, I can get by my man, I can make layups, I can do a lot of things.”

It’ll take time for Mitchell and the other newcomers to build the chemistry, but the outlook seems bright as they’ll look to improve with the All-Star break looming ahead.