Donovan Mitchell Will Only Play In New York Next Season
Last week the Utah Jazz traded Rudy Gobert to the Minnesota Timberwolves for one of the largest returns in NBA history, including five players and five future first-round picks. The trade, foreshadowed by the departure of their longtime coach Quinn Snyder, a monologue for the ages by ESPN’s Brian Windhorst, and, well, Danny Ainge’s general presence, sent a shockwave around the league.
Since then the signal, that the Jazz have no interest in continuing their attempt to compete amongst the NBA’s elite with their roster as currently constructed, has sparked the natural progression of questions throughout the league’s front offices. Mainly — does this mean Donovan Mitchell’s for sale, and if yes, at what cost?
The answer? It depends who’s asking.
The Jazz found the perfect trade partner in Minnesota for three reasons:
- The Timberwolves are a small market franchise with no history of being able to lure high-profile free agents in the off-season, meaning any attempt to add an all-star caliber talent would need to come through a trade.
- The devaluation of draft capital in the trade market over the past decade has been further deflated in Minnesota due to their vast history of poor choices at the front end of the draft. While they’ve hit on Towns and Edwards, this is a franchise that traded up to draft Johnny Flynn over Steph Curry. For a team that’s had seven lottery picks in the last decade, they’ve not built through the draft the way many of the league’s competent front offices have and were more willing to part with future picks because of this.
- The Timberwolves have a new owner, and history shows, not only, that new owners want to make a splash in the trade market immediately but, that they also have a track record of getting taxed on this desire. This isn’t even the first time Ainge has leveraged new owners’ desire to compete immediately for his franchise’s future gain. Even Mark Cuban traded for Raef LaFrentz and gave him a $70 Million contract in 2002.
The point is that the Jazz were equally interested in where they were getting these assets from, as they were what the assets were. Expect the same philosophy to hold in the coming weeks of the Donovan Mitchell saga, as the Jazz have made it clear that they have no intention of building a competitive roster this year, and are firmly staking their place at the front of the line for the ensuing race to the bottom for next years draft prize — Victor Wembanyama.
With all of that said, based on Danny Ainge’s trade tendencies and preferences, narrowing down the teams that have a legitimate shot at trading for Donovan Mitchell is an easy exercise. Consequently, the only qualified teams each occupy a New York City bureau…
The New York Knicks —
A bit of a no-brainer here, and one that I would consider the far-and-away front runner. Not only do the Knicks appeal to Mitchell, having been linked with him for the past few seasons, but they also check all of the boxes of a franchise that Ainge would do business with. The Knicks have a vast history of executing ludicrous deals to acquire B-Tier talent in hopes of propelling themselves from the depths of the league they continuously find themselves operating in.
If this trade were to go down, expect the deal to be centered around Evan Fournier and an absolute HAUL of future picks, as Ainge would look to remain non-competitive in the interim, betting on the Knicks future picks to turn into gold.
The Brooklyn Nets —
Déja Vu? All jokes aside a common ground isn’t as far-fetched as one might think. The pivotal factor that a potential deal would revolve around would be Brooklyn’s intent, and belief that they could keep Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving with a big splash, along with a willingness to further exchange future draft capital in exchange for the chance at present success.
One might find this idea crazy, and they’d be correct — but in an era where Durant can ironically request to be traded, in the second year of a four-year contract, because he felt his franchise didn’t do enough to hear out Irving’s attempt to leverage three years of zero practical production into a multi-year super-max extension, the bounds of what’s too crazy to be true is being stretched further than the modern guard’s three-point range.
If this deal were to happen, expect the package to be centered around Ben Simmons and multiple future first-round picks. Ainge is fine taking on Simmons’ Ponzi contract as it brings them no closer to competing and no further from a lottery pick in the short-term, and is betting practically nothing on Simmons’ future value being either at or above where it is today.
It’s fair to ask why the Miami Heat shouldn’t be considered a legitimate trade destination for Mitchell, but the answer has been explained through the underlying point of this article. Ainge wants future assets that hold real value — mainly draft capital that he projects to be in the lottery. Since drafting Dwayne Wade in 2003 the Miami Heat have had two top ten picks (Michael Beasley in 2008 and Justise Winslow in 2015)… in NINETEEN SEASONS!
Simply put, the Heat are far too competent for Ainge to be interested in doing business that revolves around a rebuild for his side, and rightly so. The Heat are an incredibly well-run NBA franchise that will likely be competitive for the next decade. Gaining Tyler Herro and Duncan Robinson does nothing for Utah aside from providing them some excitement from beyond the arc.
The Knicks and The Nets? Well… in terms of competency, they might as well play in Minnesota.
