It has very little to do with Mitchell. Losing Markkanen has hurt Garland a lot, especially when Mitchell is not on the floor. Add in the loss of Love and it's easy to see why Garland is struggling at the end of games. The Kings were keying on Garland and not even guarding anyone else outside the paint, when Markkanen was here even if he wasn't hitting, his very presence forced the opposition to put a big near the 3 point line which opened up the paint. Without that, every time Garland drove he'd have 2 guys on him and another guy waiting on him in the paint. No one guards Okoro at all, no one pays attention to Allen outside the paint, Stevens is little more than an after thought, Cedi is hit and miss on any given night, and teams are willing to take their chances that Mobley won't beat them. There are just not enough offensive weapons on this team unless Mitchell and Garland are together, and when you worsen it by taking out Love and Allen you basically have Garland and a bunch of guys who can't shoot. It's a recipe for disaster.
