Updates On Possible Utah Jazz Trade Involving Donovan Mitchell
The Utah Jazz have taken a step back this NBA offseason and after moving All-Star center Rudy Gobert to the Minnesota Timberwolves, All-Star guard Donovan Mitchell could very well be the next to walk out the door in Utah.
Mitchell has not formally requested a trade from the Jazz and he is happy playing in Salt Lake City, but he also wants to win and build a championship-caliber team. The Jazz look like they are heading towards a rebuild and as a result, moving their All-Star now to get the most in return is something we could see done before the start of the 2022-23 season.
So much has been said in regards to Mitchell’s future and the teams interested in him, but the New York Knicks remain the heavy front-runners to land him in a trade with Utah. Between their draft pick and young talents, there really is not another team in the league that can offer up the assets the Knicks can without leveraging their entire future at this point.
The Knicks and Jazz have been engaged in trade talks revolving around Donovan Mitchell for weeks now and while it does appear like progress is being made, new details have emerged about how this situation could play out.
After recently moving Patrick Beverley to the Los Angeles Lakers for Talen Horton-Tucker and Stanley Johnson, it now seems like the Utah Jazz are ready to solely focus on a Donovan Mitchell trade and ESPN’s Brian Windhorst and Tim MacMahon gave their takes on the situation in the most recent episode of Windhorst’s podcast.
“The Jazz are beginning their business,” Windhorst stated. “They made their first post-Gobert move earlier this week when they traded Patrick Beverley to the Lakers.
“[Tim] MacMahon, you said I believe last week that you thought that the Jazz would make a Donovan Mitchell trade before the [regular season] opener. And it sounds to me in talking to people around the league that the Jazz want to try to go even sooner than that. They want to go before training camp.”
The 2022-23 NBA season is set to begin on October 18, meaning that the Jazz are running out of time to figure things out. Not only does it seem like Utah wants to get a potential deal done ahead of the start of the new season, but they could look to push their deadline up to before training camps open up at the end of September, giving them about a month to negotiate a trade.
Trading Mitchell ahead of training camp would not be a terrible idea for the Jazz, especially if they are able to get a handful of young talents back from the Knicks and immediately integrate them into their system ahead of the start of the new season.
Developing their youth and potentially those they get in a trade will be vital for the Jazz if they are to blow things up and look to trade others like Mike Conley, Bojan Bogdanovic and Jordan Clarkson during the season as well.
Brian Windhorst also went on to state that the Jazz have been hearing other offers from other teams around the league and they are trying to increase the asking price for Donovan Mitchell, as many would expect them to do given that they just received a “king’s ransom” for Rudy Gobert.
“It does sound as I talk to folks in the league that the Jazz are trying to apply the gas here. To try to juice the offer, especially juice the offer from the New York Knicks.”
All-Star Julius Randle would not be a part of a deal for the Knicks to acquire Donovan Mitchell, as the Jazz do not want to take back Randle’s long-term contract, however, young talents like RJ Barrett, Obi Toppin and Quentin Grimes remain key talking points in trade negotiations.
The amount of first-round picks going back to Utah is also a key point of discussion in trade negotiations right now, as the Jazz are trying to get every single first-round pick they can from New York for their young All-Star.
As of right now, all indications point towards a deal getting done, but if the Jazz truly want to move Mitchell ahead of the start of training camp, they may have to come down on their asking price slightly.
New York has not been willing to budge much on their primary offer and if neither side is willing to give in to get a deal done, Donovan Mitchell could remain on Utah’s roster for the 2022-23 season.
It will be interesting to see how this situation plays out, especially since Mitchell is one of the best young scorers in the NBA.
Through his first five seasons in the league, Donovan Mitchell has averaged 23.9 points, 4.2 rebounds and 4.5 assists per game while shooting 44.1% from the floor, 36.1% from three-point range. He has made the All-Star Game each of the last three seasons.
