Months of speculation have come to a head as the Utah Jazz and Cleveland Cavaliers agreed to a massive trade that will send All-Star Donovan Mitchell to the Eastern Conference. Through all of the rumors about the New York Knicks’ involvement and exorbitant price tags from the Jazz brass, Utah finally pulled the trigger on a deal that effectively ends the organization’s most recent era.
This comes just a few months after Utah dealt its other star, Rudy Gobert, to the Minnesota Timberwolves for a haul that included a variety of players and a treasure trove of draft assets. Now, the Utah Jazz officially enter the Victor Wembanyama tankathon as the Cleveland Cavaliers nab another young cornerstone to build around.
Details of the Donovan Mitchell mega-trade between the Cavaliers and Jazz
As reported by Shams Charania of The Athletic, the Cavaliers are sending Lauri Markkanen, Ochai Agbaji, three unprotected first-round picks and two pick-swaps to the Utah Jazz in exchange for Donovan Mitchell. Cleveland and restricted free agent Collin Sexton have also agreed to a sign-and-trade deal that will send the former lottery pick to Utah on a four-year deal worth $72 million in fully-guaranteed money.
Moments later, ESPN’s NBA Insider Adrian Wojnarowski confirmed that the three first-rounders are in 2025, 2027 and 2029 with swaps in 2026 and 2028. It’s also worth noting that Agbaji, who was selected 14th overall in the 2022 NBA Draft, so the Cavaliers essentially traded six picks.
Now that we’ve established the trade details, let’s get into the instant grades.
Utah embraces a new era by trading homegrown All-Star Donovan Mitchell
It takes guts to trade off two All-Star players within a few months, but Utah executive Ainge has a proven history of making tough decisions for the betterment of his organization. Adding three promising young players and control of five draft picks puts the Utah Jazz in an unfamiliar position. This is the most flexibility the franchise has maintained since the end of the Stockton/Malone era.
Injuries stole the 2021-22 season from Sexton, who struggled with an undefined role through the little time he did spend on the court. However, the consensus has gone too far on the 23-year-old combo guard, whose wealth of scoring capabilities and blistering on-ball defense make him an excellent player to go to war with. This should be a phenomenal opportunity for him to remind the basketball world what he’s really about.
Markkanen, who now enters a featured offensive role, is in a position to showcase the full extent of his abilities. Things never quite panned out in Chicago and his role was more confined in Cleveland, so we’ll learn a lot about him as a player with this newfound freedom.
Adding such a wealth of young talent and draft picks is more than any team could ask from an undersized guard. Respect to Donovan Mitchell, whose burst, shot creation and range are hard to come by. He’s a bonafide All-Star on the biggest stage in pro basketball and is probably the best player on a Cavs team with two All-Stars already (plus another on the way in Evan Mobley).
Still, it’s hard to win at the highest level when your best player is a guard. By resetting the clock, stacking up on solid player investments and dominating draft capital, the Jazz are in complete control of their future. That’s hard to do as a small-market NBA team.
Instant Grade for the Utah Jazz: A
Cleveland Cavaliers advance their timeline while sustaining the youth movement
How often can a team trade for a legitimate All-Star without giving up other players of the same caliber? The Cleveland Cavaliers were able to keep their three best players while adding on a player who’s better than all of them at this current juncture.
Through the first five years of his career, Mitchell has averaged 23.9 points, 4.5 assists and 4.3 rebounds per game. Although there have been some Playoff duds along the way and his team’s upside was always capped, Mitchell was the driving force in establishing the Jazz as a perennial Playoff team since entering the league. Now, he gets the chance to join something with more promise than he’s ever experienced at this level.
On the surface level, this is a huge win for both Cleveland and Utah. Mitchell is under contract through 2025 with a player option for the following year. With the triad of Mobley, Garland and Allen under control for several years to come, the Cavaliers are in a strong position to give this core the time and chemistry to build into a legitimate Finals contender.
Cleveland GM Koby Altman circled back to Utah GM Justin Zanik on Tuesday and the two teams re-assembled a deal they had been discussing in previous weeks, sources tell ESPN. New York declined to do a trade a deal on Monday night, opening the door for Cleveland to secure a deal.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) September 1, 2022
But when looking a bit deeper, there are some areas of concern. Cleveland has effectively drained its war chest for the next several years, making it more difficult to flesh out a roster surrounding the young core. Their city isn’t neccesarily a free-agent destination, so it won’t be as easy to attack veterans on cheap deals compared with a flashier market.
It’s also very difficult to build a title contender with two small guards leading the show. Garland and Mitchell are both listed at 6’1″ and neither is known for their defensive prowess, so opposing backcourts will attack them relentlessly. In theory, the great wall of Mobley and Allen will supplement that with superior rim defense, but defending the 3-point line might be an issue.
All things considered, it’s still a good trade for the Cavaliers. They didn’t even have to include wing prospect Isaac Okoro, and with Kevin Love’s money coming off the books next summer, Cleveland will be able to balance its cap sheet without devastating luxury tax ramifications.
Instant Grade for the Cleveland Cavaliers: B+
From the earliest look, this appears to be one of the NBA’s rare win/win trades.