Cavs or Jazz: Who’s winning the Donovan Mitchell trade so far?

Impact on Cleveland Cavaliers

The Cleveland Cavaliers gave up a lot to add a superstar to its young core of budding stars. The payoff seems to be happening as quickly as the franchise had hoped.

Mitchell is living up to expectations and more, averaging a career-high 26.8 points per game, along with a career-best 38.6 percent accuracy mark from three-point range. He had the game of the year in the NBA on Jan. 2, when he dropped an insane 71 points in an overtime win over the Chicago Bulls.

Not only is Mitchell an All-Star, but he’s also a deserving MVP candidate as well. Here are some of the categories where Spida is hanging around the league leaders: points per game, steals per game, minutes per game, player efficiency rating, win shares, offensive win shares, defensive win shares, box plus/minus, VORP, usage percentage … the list goes on.

Cleveland knew it was getting a superstar entering his prime when it dealt for Mitchell, so the biggest concern was probably what the team was giving up. Those fears were overblown, though, as the Cavs haven’t missed a beat without Sexton (who they were going to lose anyways) and Markkanen, though the team couldn’t have anticipated his surge this year.

This season, the Cavs are 34-22, comfortably tucked into the mix for either fourth or fifth place in the Eastern Conference, right next to the Brooklyn Nets. A top-four finish in the Eastern Conference would be the team’s first without LeBron James in 20 years.

The only thing that would make the trade not worth it for the Cavs is if Mitchell suddenly doesn’t want to play for the team anymore. But he has at least two more years on his contract and seems content in Cleveland, so that doesn’t feel like a concern.