BREAKING- Cavs trade for Donovan Mitchell

So I'd guess the Cavs sent Love back as the salary piece and the picks are the main (if not only) haul for Utah. OK, big nope on that. Markkanen/Agbaji/Sexton is a nice haul.

Cleveland's 2023 FRP is already committed (1-14 protected) so they must be looking at sending '25/'27'/'29 if the "unprotected" is correct. The swaps would then be two of '24/'26'/'28. With the way Utah is tanking, and the roster the Cavs have put together now, I don't imagine any chance of a '24 or '26 pick swap conveying, and the '25 pick at least should be nearly worthless. So this really is kind of a play for the Cavs to fall apart and hope that '27/'29 ('28 swap if included) are jackpot picks.

But Cleveland is now going to be pretty good for the forseeable future.
 
PorchSurfin said:
Sexton and Markkanen too. Cleveland might be pretty nice this year. #didnotseethatcoming
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This seems like a pretty big overpay on Cleveland's part. Mitchell is a nice player but a liability on defense and if he wanted out of Utah I'm not sure he's going to love Cleveland. Sexton wasn't part of the Cav's future, but Markkanen played well for them last year and Agbaji should have been a decent 3&D wing for them.

They'll trot out a starting five of

Garland
Mitchell
LeVert or Okoro
Mobley
Allen

Which is likely a playoff team but gives shades of the Lillard/McCollum Blazers. Given how elite Mobley is on defense and with his flashes of great passing maybe they think they're closer to recreating the Warriors core of Curry/Thompson/Green, but I don't see it. Golden State's backcourt worked because Klay isn't at all ball dominant AND he is (or was) a very good defender. Garland has improved as a defender but he's not switchable and Mitchell is a poor defender who isn't all that switchable either. And both are ball dominant.

If nothing else it likely fully removes the Jazz from any chance at the playoffs so that's good for the Kings at least. We'll see how it works out for the Cavs.
 
Insane trade for the Cavs. I think Mitchell is a little overrated too, but he's absolutely perfect at the 2 for that team. Okoro/Mobley/Allen is more than enough defense to cover for their weak defensive backcourt. Hell, Mobley was already an elite defender last year as a rookie, something damn near impossible within historical context. Especially for a rookie big man. Darkhorse contender for this season and with the age of their core: (Garland 22, Mobley 21, JA 24, Mitchell 25, Okoro 21), they're going to be a top of the conference team for for the foreseeable future.

And for Utah, I get they got 7 FRP, but it's insane to me they didn't get a single premium young asset that's already in the NBA for either Gobert or Mitchell. Trading my 2 franchise cornerstones, I would have wanted at least one dude to stay "Yeah, he's our guy the next 7 years".
 
Thinking out loud here, but it seems to me Utah has more than enough unprotected draft ammo to possibly convince whichever team lands the 2023 #1 pick to trade them Victor Wembanyama? (If they don’t land the pick themselves)
 
KingsFanSince85 said:
Thinking out loud here, but it seems to me Utah has more than enough unprotected draft ammo to possibly convince whichever team lands the 2023 #1 pick to trade them Victor Wembanyama? (If they don’t land the pick themselves)
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Interesting thought. You'd probably need at least a top 3-4 pick in this draft+ 3 good FRP to get a team to consider it. Even then, I don't know if a GM would have the stones to trade Wembanyama with how much hype he has. Could you imagine if you were the GM who traded LeBron? He's basically that level of prospect hype.
 
The_Jamal said:
Interesting thought. You'd probably need at least a top 3-4 pick in this draft+ 3 good FRP to get a team to consider it. Even then, I don't know if a GM would have the stones to trade Wembanyama with how much hype he has. Could you imagine if you were the GM who traded LeBron? He's basically that level of prospect hype.
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I agree, but the flip side is — at some point if they layer enough 1st round picks it’d be hard to say “no” to that too, right?

I mean, what can Utah offer right now? Up to 7 unprotected 1st round picks through 2029? And that’s not including any of the pick swaps that could be included.

Wembanyama is arguably the most hyped prospect since LBJ or maybe John Wall, but there are also some legit concerns. Most notably, the history of someone his height isn’t great. Whether it be injury or just not developing as expected.

Is one prospect, even an elite prospect, worth keeping over a boatload of other 1st round picks? It’s an interesting dilemma to ponder.

On one hand, the entire goal is usually to be in position to draft a generational player. But look at Cleveland as an example. They landed LBJ — the top prospect this millennium— and were a perennial playoff team in the watered down East for years but couldn’t get over the hump and build up their team until LBJ left by landing a few more top draft picks then eventually welcoming him back.

It’ll be interesting to see what Danny Ainge does. His M.O. to this point is to use most or all those picks rather than sell out for one or two elite prospects. That’s how Boston was built. He even traded down to land Jayson Tatum.
 
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Damn, Collin Sexton went from one of the new cornerstones of the Cavaliers franchise, to injured, to traded to Siberia Utah, in the space of a season. You hate to see it.

Apropos of nothing, there's a twisted little part of me that would kind of like to see Twitter go offline for, like, a week, just to see how @Tetsujin would handle it?
 
Utah committing to a full rebuild in one offseason. well done. knew when it wasn't going to work and try again. Cleveland will be one of those fun teams to watch no doubt.
 
Mr. S£im Citrus said:
Damn, Collin Sexton went from one of the new cornerstones of the Cavaliers franchise, to injured, to traded to Siberia Utah, in the space of a season. You hate to see it.

Apropos of nothing, there's a twisted little part of me that would kind of like to see Twitter go offline for, like, a week, just to see how @Tetsujin would handle it?
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It’d probably do wonders for my mental health, not gonna lie.

Although in this case, I was actually doing something else when the ESPN alert for the trade popped up on my phone.
 
The_Jamal said:
Insane trade for the Cavs. I think Mitchell is a little overrated too, but he's absolutely perfect at the 2 for that team. Okoro/Mobley/Allen is more than enough defense to cover for their weak defensive backcourt. Hell, Mobley was already an elite defender last year as a rookie, something damn near impossible within historical context. Especially for a rookie big man. Darkhorse contender for this season and with the age of their core: (Garland 22, Mobley 21, JA 24, Mitchell 25, Okoro 21), they're going to be a top of the conference team for for the foreseeable future.

And for Utah, I get they got 7 FRP, but it's insane to me they didn't get a single premium young asset that's already in the NBA for either Gobert or Mitchell. Trading my 2 franchise cornerstones, I would have wanted at least one dude to stay "Yeah, he's our guy the next 7 years".
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The #1s Utah got aren't going to be high either, probably in the bottom third of the 1st round. There was a lot of talk about how Ainge was going to take NY to the cleaners; looks like NY said, "Screw you." The Ainge patina is overated.
 
Kingster said:
The #1s Utah got aren't going to be high either, probably in the bottom third of the 1st round. There was a lot of talk about how Ainge was going to take NY to the cleaners; looks like NY said, "Screw you." The Ainge patina is overated.
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Its extremely hard to say how high those unprotected Cavs or Min picks will be on 2027 or 2029 (Cavs unprotected, Min top 5 protected). Or all those swaps or even the 2025 picks. Neither of those teams are elite and one bad season could mean their pick that year are in the lottery. Also five to SEVEN years from now we have no idea on how things are, thats why picks that far in the future are very valuable.

Also the haul Ainge got for Gobert is next level. You pretty much cant get a better package in a trade. Considering the player he traded away is on a contract that he probably will be overpaid on in the last couple of years in that deal, well to me it would be extremely hard to criticise Ainge and the haul he got.

I would take a complete rebuild, the complete drafts from two additional different teams and additional vets you could turn in to future assets rather than making win now moves for 15 years hoping to win 40 games
 
I've been beating the "incredible value" drum with respect to the Sabonis trade for awhile now, but Monte McNair's acquisition of Domas is looking even more impressive as the months pass when considering what other small market GM's are currently paying to secure all-star talent.
 
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