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SALT LAKE CITY — Donovan Mitchell said he told Utah Jazz executives not to trade Rudy Gobert following the disappointing end to last season.
"I told Danny (Ainge) and Justin (Zanik) and all those guys like, 'Look, don't trade Rudy. … Don't trade him. Let's find things that we need to work on and build upon and let's make this thing happen,'" Mitchell said on the Woj Pod, which was released on Thursday.
That request, obviously, went unfulfilled. Ainge and Zanik felt the Mitchell-Gobert partnership had run its course, and they sent Gobert to Minnesota for a package of young players and multiple draft picks. That move started a full rebuild of a team that included sending Mitchell to the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Mitchell went on a mini-media tour on Wednesday after being introduced as the newest Cavaliers player, detailing the end of his time in Utah and painting a slightly different version of events than Ainge had done earlier this week.
Ainge didn't mince words this week when he addressed the state of the team following last season.
"What I saw during the season was a group of players that really didn't believe in each other," Ainge said on Monday after a summer of reshaping the roster.
Mitchell took some issue with that.
"That's his assumption after being around for six months. You know, it's easy to look at things from outside in and get your own perception on stuff," he said
Mitchell later stated that he believed in Gobert, Mike Conley, Bojan Bogdanovic, and in Jordan Clarkson, and everyone else in the locker room.
"I could sit here and tell you that right now, but ultimately it didn't work. Sometimes that just happens. It just doesn't work," Mitchell said.
However, Mitchell said he was committed to the team and finding a way to carve out a path for success. That's why he said he told executives not to trade his longtime All-Star partner. While Mitchell and Gobert had their differences, the two were one of the more efficient pick-and-roll partnerships in the league and had won a lot together. Mitchell said he didn't think that needed to end.
In fact, Mitchell discussed how he and Gobert could best play together with new Jazz coach Will Hardy when the news broke that Gobert had been traded.
"We're actually talking about how Rudy and I can work," Mitchell said. "... Like what he (Hardy) sees in our sets, and literally like his phone and my phone starts blowing up while we're in the backyard of my house and I'm like, 'Well, I guess this is irrelevant.'"
Mitchell said he entered the offseason expecting moves to be made, but didn't expect the Jazz to hit reset. The Gobert trade, he said, shifted his mindset about his future with the Jazz. Utah was getting further away from contention and he didn't see how he'd fit into that plan.
"For me, once Rudy got traded I kind of saw the writing on the wall. I think we all did," Mitchell said during his introductory press conference. "I think we understood that we had a good run. I kind of had a feeling I was going to get moved. I thought it was New York. … Obviously, who doesn't want to be home next to their mom? I haven't lived at home since I was in the eighth grade; I was at boarding school.
"It would have been nice, but once I found out I got traded and what we're getting into, that trumped everything for me. I'm truly excited to be here, be a part of this group, be a part of this city."
So where did things go wrong in Utah?
Mitchell told the Woj Pod that he still thinks back to the eight-second violation he committed late in the Game 1 loss against the Denver Nuggets in the first round of the 2020 playoffs. If he doesn't commit the violation, do the Jazz win the series? Do they advance to Western Conference Finals? To the Finals? Does the franchise's trajectory change?
"What does that look like? What does the next season look like? What's the next season ... ?" Mitchell said. "Like there's always those if ands or buts you can play."
The team responded to that loss the right way, Mitchell said, and went on to have the best record in the league the next season; however, he admitted the team couldn't ever escape the shadow of their loss to the LA Clippers the following playoffs.
"I think that the way we lost and how we lost and the five out and then it's, 'Can Rudy play' — all that stuff and the narrative," Mitchell said. "Then you get to next year, 'Is Don leaving?' Like there's so much stuff that happened that it was just like a lot. I think the Clippers series was really what changed things."
And now, a little over a year later, just about everything has changed.
