Donovan Mitchell is a Cleveland Cavalier. On Thursday, the Utah Jazz sent Mitchell to the Cavaliers for Collin Sexton (who signed a 4 year $72 million deal as a part of a sign-and-trade), Lauri Markkanen, Ochai Agbaji, unprotected 1st round picks in 2025, 2027, and 2029, and pick swaps in 2026 and 2028. It is a deal that sends shockwaves through the NBA, and adds another legit contender in the Eastern Conference. Why did both franchises do the deal, where do they go from here, and how good are the Cavaliers?
The Jazz are not done dealing. With Mitchell and Rudy Gobert gone, I suspect the Jazz to continue dealing veterans like Mike Conley, Jordan Clarkson, Rudy Gay, and Bojan Bogdanovic so this teardown is not complete. With that being said, Danny Ainge has done a fantastic job accumulating assets here. In the 2 trades, the Jazz acquired 7 first round picks (6 unprotected), 3 pick swaps, Collin Sexton, Ochai Agbaji, Walker Kessler, Jarred Vanderbilt, Malik Beasley, Lauri Markkanen, Leandro Bolmaro, and Patrick Beverly (who was traded to the Lakers for Talen Horton-Tucker and Stanley Johnson). That is a lot of stuff, a lot of future draft assets, some good young talent, and they are not done. Danny Ainge is executing a full tear down, now the question becomes can he build it back up?
The Cleveland Cavaliers are all in. What a tremendous job by Koby Altman to rebuild from what LeBron left them, to draft Darius Garland in 2019, to trade for Jarrett Allen in 2021 while giving up very little, and to draft Evan Mobley in 2021 to build a big 3 that has a lot of upside and now you add a star, a player who has never averaged under 20 points per game in his career, in Donovan Mitchell. This is a franchise that if it were not for LeBron James would have been irrelevant for 20+ years now. A franchise that everyone has laughed at when LeBron James is on a different team. Now showing not only competence but a confidence that they can be a legit contender to win the Eastern Conference. This trade gives the Cavaliers a chance to make some noise in the postseason, it makes them relevant, it gives the fanbase hope, and it shows they believe in the core that they have. The Cavs are going to be good, how does their roster break down?
The backcourt is elite. Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland are so good. They have every tool offensively, shooting, passing, dribbling, they can attack the rim, the mid range game is there, this is a duo that rivals any backcourt in the NBA. The defense is a concern, of course, both are undersized and have shown they struggle to defend on the perimeter but you live with that. A big reason why you live with that is because of how good the bigs are defensively in Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley. The rim protection Cleveland has is elite and the wing defense is better than it was in Utah with guys like Issac Okoro and Cedi Osman. They need Okoro to hit wide open 3’s, Caris LeVert needs to have a bounce back season, Ricky Rubio comes back off of an ACL tear, Kevin Love is back after finishing 2nd in Sixth Man of the Year, and I love me some Dean Wade. There is a lot of talent in Cleveland full of guys who want to win, how do they stack up in what is becoming a loaded Eastern Conference?
The Cleveland Cavaliers are a very good, if not great, basketball team. They are going to make the playoffs and have a real chance to make more noise than people are giving them credit for. However, I am not sold they are in the top tier of the East. There is an argument that the Boston Celtics’ 2 best players are better than anyone else Cleveland has. The Celtics are deeper than Cleveland, better defensively, better on the wing, and have the guards to guard Garland and Mitchell. The Bucks are also better. They have a big 3 of Giannis Antetokounmpo, Jrue Holiday, and Khris Middleton with better depth than what Cleveland has and they have won a championship. Did I mention they have Giannis? I am not sold that the 76ers are in the same class as Milwaukee and Boston and thus a team that if Cleveland matched up with them, I think there is a legit case that the Cavs could beat the Sixers in a 7 game series. As you can see, I believe that the Celtics and Bucks are in a class of their own in the East and are the teams that everyone else is chasing. Brooklyn exists but why would anyone bet on them, Kevin Durant clearly does not want to be there and are Kyrie Irving and Ben Simmons even going to play? Miami is worse than they were last season and though I think I would pick them over the Cavs, I think that Cleveland has a better roster. I think the Cavs are better than the Hawks and the Raptors, as both teams do not have the amount of stars that Cleveland has. I think that Cleveland is the 5th or 6th best team in the Eastern Conference and is unlikely to make it to the NBA Finals, though the Eastern Conference Finals are not out of the picture.
Donovan Mitchell was not supposed to be traded to the Cavaliers, he was supposed to be traded to the New York Knicks. It was seen as an inevitability by many around the league. I mean the NBA put the Knicks at Jazz on TNT assuming it would be the Donovan Mitchell return game. The question is; is not landing Mitchell a disaster for the Knicks and I think the answer is yes. The Knicks need a star, they need a guy who can uplift their franchise, and you balked at the idea of trading for one who wanted to play for you because of Quentin Grimes and Obi Toppin? I could understand a hesitancy to include R.J. Barrett but according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, there was not any hesitancy to put Barrett in a deal. You have the draft picks to pull a deal like this off, Utah clearly saw Grimes as a real piece they wanted, and Mitchell wanted to be a Knick, so why isn’t he a Knick? If not Mitchell, who are you going to trade for? This is not a team that can compete for much of anything in the Eastern Conference and Mitchell was the first piece of a team that would lift you to the promised land. I understand Donovan Mitchell does not make you a championship contender but he makes basketball in New York fun again because, except for one fluke season in 2020-21, basketball has not been fun at Madison Square Garden since 2013 when the Knicks were the Eastern Conference’s number 2 seed. Mitchell is not the final piece that pushes you over the top but he is the piece that convinces the real superstar that he wants to be a Knick and play at the Garden because no one since Carmelo Anthony has wanted to be a Knick and Mitchell wanted to be a Knick. So while I understand you did not want to trade all those unprotected picks for a guy who is not the best player on a championship team, you have no other path to being even slightly competitive anytime soon. Maybe they make the Play-In Tournament but that is about it and eventually you have to take a big chance because though the big swing might not work out, it has a better chance of working out than what you are doing now.
Donovan Mitchell was traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers in a shocking turn of events that very few saw coming. It sent ripples through the NBA, changes what seems to be an already loaded Eastern Conference by making it deeper, and announces to the league that the Cavaliers have arrived in a big way. The NBA season is about a month and a half away and it cannot get here soon enough.
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