The Cleveland Cavaliers have traded for Utah Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell, based on Adrian Wojnarowski. The three-time All-Star guard goes to Cleveland in alternate for a bundle centered round draft picks and younger gamers. 

The Jazz have acquired Cleveland’s unprotected first-round picks in 2025, 2027 and 2029, plus decide swaps in 2026 and 2028, per ESPN. Additionally going to Utah, as first reported by Yahoo Sports activities’ Chris Haynes: Ochai Agbaji, the No. 14 decide within the 2022 draft; Collin Sexton, who will arrive through sign-and-trade; and Lauri Markkanen. 

Sexton’s new contract is for 4 years and $72 million, based on Shams Charania.

Mitchell, who turns 26 subsequent week, joins a Cavs core that additionally contains the 22-year-old Darius Garland, the 24-year-old Jarrett Allen and the 21-year-old Evan Mobley. Garland and Allen each made the All-Star staff final season, and Mobley completed second in Rookie of the 12 months voting.

The Jazz, in the meantime, are pivoting to a full rebuild, having already traded Mitchell’s former co-star, Rudy Gobert, for the same bundle in a cope with the Minnesota Timberwolves this offseason.

The Cavs are going massive and small on the similar time 

Cleveland didn’t must do something massive this summer time. Regardless of an extended checklist of accidents final season, it gained 44 video games, which was adequate to qualify for the play-in match. Mobley was an All-Protection candidate as a rookie and has franchise-player upside. Garland is ascending, and is equally harmful with and with out the ball. Allen is a premier rim protector, and he is growing on offense precisely because the Cavs hoped. Had they merely added Agbaji to the combo, reunited with Ricky Rubio and referred to as it an offseason, they might have been on an upward trajectory, with cap house forward of them subsequent summer time. Agbaji, a 3-and-D wing, is strictly the kind of participant they did not have. Perhaps they might have introduced Sexton again, too.

As a substitute, with an elite playmaker in the marketplace, Cleveland determined to go for it. The rationale right here is easy: For all the great vibes surrounding the Cavs final season, they completed with the 20th-best offense within the NBA (111 factors per 100 possessions) and have been completely horrendous (103 per 100) when Garland was off the court docket. Garland’s capability to shoot on the transfer makes him a clear match with Mitchell on offense, and Cleveland can preserve one among them on the ground always. Perhaps this implies Caris LeVert, acquired in a midseason commerce with the Indiana Pacers, would be the Cavs’ long-term sixth man; possibly it means he’ll be moved earlier than this 12 months’s deadline. 

Pairing Mobley with Allen — and beginning the 6-foot-11 Markkanen subsequent to them — was an fascinating experiment in an period the place bigs are routinely performed off the ground within the playoffs. After a profitable wager on their mobility and expertise, Cleveland has doubled down, successfully saying that it believes its exceptionally giant frontcourt can masks the weaknesses of its exceptionally small backcourt. In concept, if Garland and Mitchell, each of them 6-foot-1, neither of them a flexible defender, can survive anyplace defensively, then it could be on a staff that has Mobley and Allen behind them.

It’s affordable to be skeptical about that. Whereas a lot of the NBA is attempting to accumulate as many massive, sturdy, switchable wings as attainable, the Cavs have assembled a (wildly gifted) core with both one or zero of them, relying on whether or not or not you suppose Isaac Okoro can nonetheless be thought-about a part of the core. As Daryl Morey likes to say, although, you’ll be able to’t simply go into the famous person retailer and decide the one you need. If the Cavs had waited, possibly they might have acquired one other participant of Mitchell’s caliber, with out the plain match subject. However that excellent commerce alternative may by no means had offered itself.  

What’s subsequent for Utah?

The Jazz felt they’d hit their ceiling with Gobert and Mitchell, so lead government Danny Ainge charted a brand new course. They acquired 4 first-round picks for Gobert, solely one among them (flippantly) protected, plus a decide swap. The Cavaliers despatched them three extra unprotected firsts, plus two swaps. Between Agbaji and massive man Walker Kessler, picked No. 24 by Minnesota on this 12 months’s draft after which included within the Gobert commerce, they primarily acquired two extra first-rounders. Utah picked up one other first within the deal that despatched Royce O’Neale to the Brooklyn Nets. And in a commerce with the Los Angeles Lakers, it turned veteran Patrick Beverley, acquired from the Timberwolves, into 21-year-old Talen Horton-Tucker. 

And Ainge is not accomplished. 

Mike Conley, who turns 35 subsequent month, will not be a part of the Jazz’s long-term plans. Neither is Bojan Bogdanovic, who will flip 34 throughout subsequent season’s playoffs. Jordan Clarkson, 30, figures to be obtainable as properly, and the identical is probably going true of Malik Beasley, who turns 26 in November. ESPN reported that Utah considers Sexton, 23, and Markkanen, 25, to be keepers, however there isn’t any assure that they end their respective contracts in Salt Lake Metropolis.

The Jazz have a big assortment of future picks now, and so they’ll have much more by the deadline, if not by the start of coaching camp. They’ve set themselves as much as lose a ton of video games subsequent season, and, if the lottery breaks proper, they may get to draft their subsequent franchise participant. The losses shall be painful, however they’re going to include a facet of hope. The identical cannot be mentioned of banging your head in opposition to the identical wall 12 months after 12 months.