The Utah Jazz finally traded away one of the best defensive players of the current generation in Rudy Gobert to the Minnesota Timberwolves. The Wolves sent over an absolute haul of draft picks along with multiple rotation players to acquire Gobert to form a twin tower front-court combination of Gobert and Karl-Anthony Towns.
Now that the Jazz are armed with 6 new first-round picks (5 from Utah and 1 from Brooklyn), the team is fully committed to building around Donovan Mitchell. ‘Spida’ has been a rumored trade target for multiple teams, but it looks like the Jazz are going to keep him and re-tool the roster around him.
Adrian Wojnarowski detailed how the Jazz looks at the current situation and whether they can be tempted to make Mitchell available on the market.
"They have shut down any team who's called about trying to trade for Donovan Mitchell. The Jazz are committed to moving forward with him as their cornerstone player."@wojespn on the Utah Jazz's plans with Donovan Mitchellpic.twitter.com/OqPPan8bYy
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) July 3, 2022
“Danny Ainge, Justin Zanik, and Utah’s front office, they want to continue to build a roster around Donovan Mitchell. They have certainly got some good veterans left, they have 6 draft first-round picks that they have gathered up that they can use in delas and trades to reshape the roster around Mitchell. This is a team taking a step back to take take more forward ina couple of years. Utah, they have shut down any team who’s called about trying to trade for Donovan Mitchell. The Jazz are committed to moving forward with him as their cornerstone player.”
Mitchell and Gobert’s relationship seemed to have completely broken down by the time the Dallas Mavericks convincingly beat the Jazz despite Luka Doncic’s injury.
The Jazz have some great pieces that can help them keep themselves in the race for the Western Conference playoffs through Jarred Vanderbilt, Patrick Beverley, Malik Beasley, and others. They have a lot more moves in them, so it will be interesting to see how they use this pick capital to reinforce the roster in the short-term with trades.
