3 reasons Donovan Mitchell is going to leave the Utah Jazz: 1. Because he can
It sounds obvious, doesn’t it? Silly even. But the fact is that these days it doesn’t seem to matter how long a star player’s contract runs until – they will still be able to force a move if necessary. This puts an organization like the Jazz in perhaps the most unenviable position in the entire league.
Do they just continue to play a clearly unhappy player, in the hopes he comes around? That can be so damaging to team chemistry and it makes the long-term hard to plan for. If Mitchell doesn’t want to be there, there is a blueprint created by Ben Simmons that, although expensive to him personally, will eventually see him get his way.
The length of Mitchell’s deal is very appealing to other franchises as well, so getting the most for him while they can if he doesn’t want to be in Utah makes sense. So if he continues to show that he doesn’t want to be there, the team can just move him to whoever gives them the best offer, even if it is a place he likely wouldn’t willingly go to like the San Antonio Spurs and Orlando Magic.
They don’t need to do right by a player who doesn’t do right by them. But the fact remains that teams like the Jazz who move the best player in a trade rarely come out the better for it. But on the flip side, free agents are rarely willing to go to Utah, so getting what they could for Mitchell while he still has so long on his contract is sure to appeal to them.
If LeBron James signaled the start of the player empowerment era with his move to the Miami Heat, then James Harden perfected it. To go from the Houston Rockets, to the Brooklyn Nets, and now the Philadelphia 76ers, having never won a championship and only getting older in the process, is an outcome we never could have predicted. Harden did that in less than two years and started the process when firmly under contract. Why wouldn’t a fed-up Mitchell?