SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA – NOVEMBER 19: Davion Mitchell #15 of the Sacramento Kings looks on in the first half against the Toronto Raptors at Golden 1 Center on November 19, 2021 in Sacramento, California. (Photo by Lachlan Cunningham/Getty Images)
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On Saturday, June 18th, 1815, one of Napoleon’s most trusted generals failed him.
In what ended up being the end of the Napoleonic Wars and the First French Empire, France lost the Battle of Waterloo against the Seventh Coalition forces. Many believe Marshal Grouchy – who was given command of a third of Napoleon’s army – was to blame for the loss. Grouchy was told to keep the Prussian forces from joining the Duke of Wellington and his battalion in Waterloo. With the Prussians stationed nearby and Grouchy lying in the wake, ready to attack, he heard heavy cannon fire starting in the distance, distracting him from stopping the Prussians. The confusion ultimately led to the Prussians overwhelming Grouchy, pushing his army back to France, Napoleon failing to make a comeback, and ending his reign.
Failing to focus on the task in front of you and, ultimately, your responsibility could lead to losing the battle and the war. Napoleon and Grouchy learned that in a brutal way. So did the Toronto Raptors last season.
Multiple transactions throughout the year helped evaporate the Raptors’ once-patent defensive identity. Their wing depth was depleted with no more Pascal Siakam, OG Anunoby, or Precious Achiuwa. Toronto’s defense was forced to morph and inevitably failed without its structural integrity.
They finished 26th in defensive efficiency, and while you can blame part of that on injuries, absences, and a lack of chemistry, the truth is, the new-look Raptors were missing a significant component of any well-rounded defensive scheme:
Ball pressure.
In the last few months, the Raptors have attempted to correct course, adding players who can hopefully help them become a better point-of-attack defense and allow their formidable backline defenders, Scottie Barnes and Jakob Poeltl, to thrive protecting the rim. Rookie Jamal Shead, Ochai Agbaji, Immanuel Quickley, RJ Barrett, and Gradey Dick will play important roles for this team’s perimeter defense, but perhaps the most intriguing of their guard platoon, especially defensively, is Davion Mitchell, the fourth-year guard who is affectionately known as ‘Off Night’ for causing headaches for opposing offenses.
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“There is one term around the league when you have a player around the rim protecting everybody. It’s called MIG: ‘most important guy,’” said Darko Rajakovic, heading into his second year as Raptors Head Coach. “I changed that for our team this year; the MIG will guard the ball.”
When you watch Mitchell’s highlights, it’s easy to see how he can assume the role of MIG on defense. “That’s the reason I’m in this league,” Mitchell said when asked about his role on the Raptors at Training Camp in Montreal. “Playing defense, putting pressure on the ball, disrupting people offensively, I think that’s why I’m here.” That description matches what Coach Rajakovic wants from his team.
On Media Day, Rajakovic detailed how to improve two specific areas: pick-up points on defense, which usually come down to when you begin guarding your assignment in transition, and the line of defense, which is how far the defense can stretch out the offense, forcing them to play deeper into the clock and muck up actions.
Mitchell thrives in both departments. He constantly pressures the ball, directs traffic, forces ballhandlers into awkward angles, and makes life hard for anyone who tries to dribble in front of him.
“He’s a defensive monster,” said RJ Barrett on day 2 of Training Camp. “I think everybody knows that.”
“He has a good track history of doing that at a high level,” said Rajakovic. “My conversations with him go even further. He needs to be better off the ball, getting in the right spots, being as disruptive as possible off the ball as much as he is on the ball.”
Like Napoleon to Grouchy, Rajakovic wants Mitchell to stay attentive to the task, or the battle will be lost before it starts.
“Just being in the right spot and not being late,” Mitchell added. “I think sometimes I can get caught sleeping, and then I try to help, and It’s a 2-way stunt, and it ends up in a wide-open shot. So, just trying to be in that position at first.”
Last season, Poeltl was the backline defense desperately trying to plug holes on a sinking ship. The lack of pressure on the ball created an overflow of drives to the rim for opponents that overwhelmed their typically trusty, defensive center. The Raptors were not good defensively with Poeltl on the floor, but they were much worse without him.
A player like Mitchell can strike a balance.
He is superb at defending pick-and-rolls, allowing 0.83 points per possession across nearly 900 reps throughout his three seasons in Sacramento. He’s just as potent defending isolations, allowing just 0.84 points per possession across 127 reps. His stout frame, quick feet, and strong upper body will enable him to guard multiple possessions, stay connected, absorb bumps, and maneuver around screens on the ball.
“Especially with Jak – how he protects the rim helps me put more pressure on the ball because I can send them to the rim, and he gets blocks, and we’re out and running,” Mitchell said about developing that chemistry with his big man.
In that sense, it’s easy to see how Mitchell can work with the Raptors’ core four: Poeltl, Barnes, Quickley, and Barrett. They had a +10.5 net rating and 108.5 defensive rating, which would have tied them for the best in the league last season. It’s hard to assume that will stick as the sample size grows and they harp on development throughout the year, but Mitchell could help tie things together if he can help them win on the defensive end.
“He’s going to help defensively and we’re going to see him in those lineups with those guys, but I also need him to carry the second unit.” Rajakovic said when asked about Mitchell seeing starter-level minutes. “We want to apply more ball pressure. We want to be aggressive. We want to have active hands. Davion will be a big part of that.”
How big it is depends on how effective Mitchell is on offense, which was a big part of Sacramento’s decision to move on after three seasons in which he progressively received fewer and fewer minutes before falling entirely out of their rotation. However, the on-court context and competition level in Toronto are different, which might allow him to change his career trajectory.
“I just want him to feel that he has a fresh start,” Rajakovic said about Mitchell. “He has the opportunity here to be best version of himself.” That fresh start seems to be the motto for the Raptors this season as they embark on a rebuild, but it especially applies to Mitchell. A massive swing factor has been his perimeter shooting. He’s attempted fewer and fewer shots each season, especially from downtown where he took seven threes as a rookie, but averaged just over two in his past two seasons.
Still, if you dig deeper, he has been getting better. He shot a career-best 36% from three last year and significantly improved as a catch-and-shoot player, knocking down 37% of over 120 attempts from beyond the arc in the 2023-2024 season. If that sustains or even improves in Toronto, Mitchell’s role with the Raptors could drastically change in the short and long term. There’s pressure that comes with that.
“Just trying to keep it simple,” Mitchell told me during camp. “Shooting the open catch-and-shoots, getting in the paint, finding my teammates open, getting Jakob easy shots, getting everybody easy shots and just doing my job.”
However, Rajakovic wants even more.
“I want him to be on the ball with our second unit,” Rajakovic told me.”He needs to do a really good job pushing the pace. He cannot be bringing the ball up the floor slowly, because that’s not the style of the game that we want to play. So that’s an area for him to continue improving. And also, I’m encouraging him to play free. Like, if he has open shot, he needs to take that shot. I want him to feel comfortable playing pick-and-rolls and also finding his teammates. I think he’s a good pick-and-roll player and from this time that he’s been with us, I’ve seen that he’s actually making pretty good reads out of pick-and-roll, and finding shooters and rollers.”
The film and numbers confirm Rajokovic’s claims about Mitchell’s decision-making with the ball. He’s a valuable player working as a ballhandler, coming off screens and handoffs and bursting into space, trying to find his teammates. But it will still come down to the shooting.
“He’s been shooting the ball extremely well,” Barrett said about his new teammate. “That’s definitely a big piece for us.”
As we are continuously reminded, development isn’t linear, but if he can fine-tune his shooting off the catch while continuing to dominate defensively and assert himself as a decision-maker, he will become an essential part of this Raptors team. It’s as simple as that.
Theoretically, Mitchell can be the key to tying things together for the Raptors. A utility player who can be plugged into multiple lineup iterations and can consistently provide a specific skill set the Raptors desperately require.
Could he be solely responsible for improving the Raptors’ defense? Impossible. As always, a team sport requires a collective buy-in to be impactful.
But he could be the MIG, or ‘most important guy,’ as Rajakovic puts it—like Marshal Grouchy for Napoleon.
The conduit for change.
Essential for victory.