New Orleans Pelicans: Can Kira Lewis Jr. become Donovan Mitchell?

The New Orleans Pelicans saw a glimpse at what Kira Lewis Jr could become in the Utah Jazz’s Donovan Mitchell

The New Orleans Pelicans lost again tonight to the Utah Jazz, dropping them to 5-8 on the season, but tonight we’re not going to focus on the team’s struggles.

Sure, there’s a lot we could say about the team’s poor 3 point defense or their sputtering offense, but we’ll save that for another time. Instead, we’re going to focus on one of the players that caused the Pelicans’ demise tonight, Donovan Mitchell.

Mitchell has become one of the NBA’s best young guards, and I think he could be a great representation of what Pelicans rookie, Kira Lewis Jr, could become. Here’s why:

Why Donovan Mitchell is the perfect archetype for the New Orleans Pelicans’ Kira Lewis Jr.

When watching Donovan Mitchell tonight, I found myself amazed at how he was able to perform given his size. In fact, it’s what has amazed me about Mitchell throughout his whole career.

Mitchell stands at only 6 feet, small by NBA standards, yet somehow he spends most of his time playing shooting guard. Normally, teams prefer to have shooting guards who are tall and relegate smaller guard to point duties, but not in the modern NBA.

In today’s NBA as long as you can do what a teams want you to do, it doesn’t matter where you play. Mitchell plays shooting guard because he can attack the basket with speed, and shoot the ball from deep.

I think this connects well to Kira Lewis Jr’s situation because like Mitchell, he is a smaller guard. He’s 6’3″ but slight at only 170 pounds. Most people view him as a point guard because of that size, but Mitchell proves he doesn’t have to be stuck in the role.

See, another reason why Mitchell plays shooting guard is that Mitchell came into the league young. He wasn’t fully ready and didn’t have the playmaking chops to run the point that he has now.

This is Kira’s situation with the Pelicans, he’s young at only 19 years old, and he doesn’t fully understand how to run an NBA offense, even if he’s done it in flashes. But Lewis can score, and in a variety of ways.

So maybe as the Pelicans struggle on offense in games that are becoming more and more important, it might be best to try Kira Lewis Jr. out at shooting guard. His scoring abilities could help boost the Pelicans’ offense, and the Pelicans could expand his role as he plays at the two.

That’s how the Utah Jazz grew Donovan Mitchell the former 13th overall pick into a star, and it could be how the New Orleans Pelicans make Kira Lewis Jr. one too!