The Donovan Mitchell sweepstakes are now seeing a larger pool of teams join the hunt, as the Utah Jazz have reportedly received interest from a whole host of NBA teams. These teams are the Washington Wizards, Toronto Raptors, Charlotte Hornets, Sacramento Kings, Miami Heat, and Atlanta Hawks, along with the already reported New York Knicks.
Mitchell is a young guard that could fit into the timeline in all of these situations. The least plausible one is probably Washington, as the team already has a ball-dominant shooting guard in Bradley Beal. Aside from that, every other team’s interest is justified, depending on the trade assets they give up.
The New York Knicks have widely been considered the front-runners in this race. With so many more teams also being in the hunt, there is a chance that the price for Spida went all the way up. This was reported by Shams Charania of The Athletic.
The Wizards, Raptors, Hornets, Kings, Heat and Hawks along with the Knicks have expressed interest in Donovan Mitchell, per @ShamsCharania pic.twitter.com/pF7eQgUkMB
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) July 25, 2022
Along with Washington, Atlanta doesn’t make sense as a destination. They just acquired Dejounte Murray to be the guard next to Trae Young, so adding Mitchell as well would overload them in that position, especially considering John Collins may be their best asset to match salaries.
The best fit would probably be on the Raptors, as the team can upgrade from Gary Trent Jr. and acquire Mitchell to be the back-court partner of Fred VanVleet. The path of acquisition would be a little challenging, but it doesn’t seem like they’d have to give up anything greater than OG Anunoby in terms of players that can help them win now.
The Knicks’ desire to add Mitchell will be tested with opposing offers, so it’ll be interesting to see how Danny Ainge handles this entire situation. Utah is bustling with draft picks since the Rudy Gobert trade and now could add an equal haul for Mitchell.
