Gobert is great for what he is. With his offensive limitations and inability to effect the game in certain ways, he's an amazing #3 on a championship team. Put him with Durant and Harden and it would be amazing.

Mitchell is not a #1 on a championship team. That's just the reality of it. He's very good and as a #2 would make a team one of the favorites. But he's not the lead guy on a championship team. There's only 10 or so guys at any time who are, maybe 15 at the most.

That's limited to guys like
Embiid, Antetokounmpo, Luka, Tatum, Durant, LeBron, Steph, Kawhi Leonard (if healthy)
And then probably also guys like Ja (though maybe not yet), Jimmy Butler, or Anthony Davis (if healthy)
And borderline types that probably aren't enough could include maybe Jokic, Devin Booker, Paul George, James Harden or Dame Lillard (though those last 2 are probably too late now, they might have earlier been capable).

We'll even give a brief shoutout to Trae Young, KAT, and Dejounte Murray (who I don't think can be the #1 on a championship teams, but they're listed in Top 15 of VORP, so maybe I'm overlooking them?

And then you get to Donovan Mitchell.

So if Mitchell isn't the #1 on a championship team, and Gobert isn't a #2, that leaves the Jazz missing a transcendent superstar that can lift them to a title. And there's only a few ways to get one of those. Given that Utah is ...Utah and not Los Angeles, there's only one way to get one of them.

So Utah needs to keep trying to hit in the draft. And if they get a Giannis or a Luka or Embiid or Tatum in the draft, then they can worry about the rest. But until then, it's just trying to win a title without the most important part and someone Utah hasn't had since Karl Malone.