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SALT LAKE CITY — The changes keep on coming.
First, Quin Snyder stepped down.
Then Rudy Gobert was traded.
Now, the Donovan Mitchell era is over in Utah.
The Utah Jazz traded the three-time All-Star guard to the Cleveland Cavaliers Thursday, according to a report from ESPN. The Jazz get in return Colin Sexton, Lauri Markkanen and Ochai Agbaji, in addition to three future unprotected draft picks and two pick swaps. Utah now owns Cleveland's 2025, 2027 and 2029 first-round picks and have the option of swapping picks with the Cavs in 2026 and 2028.
The Jazz, according to The Athletic, are signing Sexton to a four-year, $72 million contract via a sign-and-trade scenario as part of the deal. Agbaji was taken with the 14th pick in the 2022 NBA draft, and Markkanen is 25 years old and averaged 15.4 points in his first five years in the league.
The Jazz now have a mix of young players, tradable veterans, and a multitude of draft picks that can set the team up for the future. The present, though, could be pretty rough. Tank note — as some fans have started to call it — looks to be officially on.
Get used to hearing about Victor Wembenyama, Scoot Henderson, Amen Thompson and Ausar Thompson. Those, along with some others, are the prizes of the 2023 NBA draft and players that could form a new foundation for the franchise.
But for now, there will be a lot of wondering of what could have been.
In his five seasons in the NBA, Mitchell has proven to be one of the top offensive players in the league. He is one of only 12 players to average at least 25 points and five assists per game over the past two years. He led the Jazz to the No. 1 seed in 2020-21 and to the league's top offense last season. He's made the All-Star Game in the last three years and holds one of the best postseason scoring averages in league history.
Off the court, he's got a charismatic charm and signature shoe deal. He was Utah's most marketable player since maybe Karl Malone. And at 25, he's just entering his prime.
So why move on from the homegrown All-Star that brought hope to a fan base after Gordon Hayward spurned the team back in 2017?
"The team fell short, we fell short, so we need to recalibrate and try to go and open up the next window. And hopefully it's a long window," general manager Justin Zanik said in early July.
Three years ago, Utah went for it. The Jazz traded young players and future picks to get Mike Conley and lured Bojan Bogdanovic to Utah in free agency. There were moments when things worked beautifully. Most of which came in 2020-21 when Utah ran through the league on its way to the best record in the league and best winning percentage in franchise history.
Conley was named to the All-Star Game that year, Bogdanovic was a near 20-point scorer, Gobert was the Defensive Player of the Year, and Mitchell would have potentially made All-NBA if it weren't for a late-season ankle injury. Those highlights, though, were overshadowed by the team's consistent failures in the postseason.
In 2020, the Jazz lost a 3-1 series lead in a first round loss to the Denver Nuggets. The next year, they dropped a 2-0 lead in the second round to the Los Angeles Clippers. And last April, the Jazz lost to the Dallas Mavericks, despite Luka Doncic missing the first three games of the series.
It was clear then change was needed. The window closed and Danny Ainge and Co. went to work opening up a new one.
That's what all the moves this summer have been centered around. It wasn't a surprise when Gobert was traded for a package that included a hoard of draft picks, and the only semi-surprise about Thursday's news was the team Mitchell is going to. Since Zanik admitted in July that Mitchell wasn't "untouchable" there have been reports of trade discussions — most of which centering around one of Mitchell's preferred destinations: the New York Knicks.
The Knicks had the draft capital and young players to swing a deal with the Jazz, but in the end, New York thought Ainge's asking price was too high. The Knicks reportedly weren't willing to send back more than two unprotected first rounds in a deal for Mitchell. Considering that was what Ainge was after the most, he went looking for other offers. He found one he liked with the Cavs.
The deals likely aren't over for Utah. Bojan Bogdanovic, Mike Conley and Jordan Clarkson are all veterans that can have value for a contending team — and they should be the next dominos to fall as the season creeps up.
For now, the Jazz have turned Mitchell, Gobert and Royce O'Neale into eight future first round picks, three first round swaps, two 2022 first round picks (Ochai Agbaji and Walker Kessler) along with Collin Sexton, Malik Beasley, Leandro Bolmaro, Jarred Vanderbilt,, Lauri Markkanen, Talen Horton-Tucker and Stanley Johnson.
The Jazz burned it down. Now, can they build it back up?
