Acquiring Donovan Mitchell was the Cavaliers’ big move in 2022, with the hope that the team would grow into a contender together. A slow start to the season and injuries could rule them out of contention. Shams Charania has reported that teams around the NBA are looking at whether Mitchell will be available for a trade given his contract is expiring next season and he could leave the Cavaliers for nothing.
“The Donovan Mitchell side of all of this, he’s going to be a topic, he’s definitely a topic among teams around the league. The Cavaliers know this about Donovan Mitchell. He wants to win, he wants to win big, he wants to compete for a championship. This team, right now, is in the playoff/play-in race. If they drop out, a lot of teams are going to be looking at them.”
"The Donovan Mitchell side of all of this, he's going to be a topic, he's definitely a topic among teams around the league."@ShamsCharania on Donovan Mitchell and injuries piling up in Cleveland. pic.twitter.com/bEijW969Wo
— Run It Back (@RunItBackFDTV) December 18, 2023
The Cavaliers’ hopes of being a top-four team in the East once again have been dashed with a series of injuries to Mitchell’s two co-stars Darius Garland and Evan Mobley. Garland will be out for four weeks with a facial fracture, while Mobley could be out for 6-8 weeks after undergoing knee surgery.
Even though Mitchell led the Cavs to an OT win over the Rockets with a 37-point outing, it might not be sustainable to perform at that level till February just to keep the Cavs in the play-in race.
Given everything Cleveland gave up for Mitchell, losing him for nothing could be a disastrous outcome for a team that tried to fast-track their rebuild by acquiring Mitchell next to emerging talents such as Garland, Mobley, and Jarrett Allen. If they lose Donovan for nothing, the Cavaliers could find themselves back in the dog days of struggling to move up in the East without LeBron James on the roster.
Will The Cleveland Cavaliers Move Donovan Mitchell?
Giving up on an asset they traded five first-round picks for after a season-and-a-half won’t be good business for the Cavaliers, so it’s unlikely we see him moved this season. The team will hope that having Mitchell’s bird rights and being able to offer him more money than anyone else will be the reason Donovan stays instead of pursuing his childhood dream of playing in New York or another bonafide contender.
However, if Mitchell makes it clear to them that he will not be re-signing, they won’t have a choice. Mitchell is extension-eligible right now but it doesn’t look like those talks are even taking place. If Donovan wants to leave, the Cavaliers have to recoup the assets they lost by trading him somewhere else. He’s still an elite guard in the NBA and could fetch an equitable package, given his on-court excellence in Cleveland so far.
Even if he wants to stay, the structural problems they’re facing with a backcourt of Spida and Garland will not disappear. They’re both undersized and need the ball to succeed. Garland has taken a backseat to Mitchell, but this may be bad for his development, given he proved he could be the future lead guard for the Cavs before the Mitchell trade.
The Cavs have plenty of options ahead of them, but the wrong one could doom the franchise.
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