The Cleveland Cavaliers pushed a lot of chips into the middle of the table last summer, sending a pile of picks and three players to the Utah Jazz in exchange for dynamic shooting guard Donovan Mitchell. The move paid off in 2022-23, with the Cavs leaping up to 51 wins and finishing with the league’s second-best point differential.
While the team did lose in the first round in a definitive fashion, the future is bright in Cleveland. Yet there is also the looming specter of Mitchell’s free agency, which could come as early as the summer of 2025. Given that Mitchell is unlikely to sign an extension this offseason, that dark end of the road will be looming for at least another season.
Should the Cavaliers trade Donovan Mitchell?
When discussing whether Mitchell would sign the extension, ESPN’s Tim Bontemps was his usual blunt self on The Hoop Collective podcast. His opinion is that Mitchell is never going to sign an extension to stay in Cleveland (implying he would prefer a team like the New York Knicks) and he said that the Cavs should trade him this summer while his value is the highest.
What would it look like to “sell high” on Mitchell? Let’s say another team, emboldened by Mitchell not signing the extension, jumps in and makes an offer for Spida. What would that deal look like? And could it entice the Cavaliers? Let’s lay out the deal and take a closer look.
Laying out a Donovan Mitchell trade
While there are a number of teams that could make an offer for Donovan Mitchell, the prime team is a low-end playoff team that needs a dynamic on-ball guard and can trade a win-now asset back to the Cavs in return. Cleveland made the swing last summer because they feel that their current core can win now; they aren’t going to simply move him for picks and reset the timeline entirely.
The New Orleans Pelicans emerge as a strong trade partner. They have four young forwards who would ideally all start, but someone from Zion Williamson, Brandon Ingram, Trey Murphy III and Herb Jones has to come off the bench when everyone’s healthy (obviously an important caveat with the Pels). That could motivate New Orleans to make a swing and swap a forward for a guard.
Here’s what a deal could look like:
The Pelicans now have Donovan Mitchell and CJ McCollum as a dynamic offensive starting backcourt, with McCollum able to transition into a super-sub role at some point as he ages. They love Dyson Daniels, but he is still raw on offense and they get back Isaac Okoro as a secondary defensive stopper to back up Herb Jones’ role on the team.
The offensive pairing of Mitchell and Zion is formidable, and this team has a good mixture of role players to put around them. If the Pelicans thought they had a chance to re-sign Mitchell, this deal makes sense.
Does it make sense for the Cavaliers?
Grading the trade for the Cavaliers
There are a few different levels to evaluating this trade for the Cavaliers. It’s not as simple as balancing assets on a scale to see if they level out; the Cavs need to consider the future direction of their team as well the path that brought them here.
Asset-wise, how does this deal look? Not bad. Brandon Ingram is a fringe All-Star player, a guy in the 25-35 range of players leaguewide. He averaged 24.7 points per game last season with 5.5 rebounds and 5.8 assists, shooting 39 percent from 3-point range. That’s a really sound offensive resume.
Ingram also gives the Cavs a better floor balance, allowing them to start Darius Garland and Max Strus in the backcourt and put the 6’8″ Ingram at small forward. Dyson Daniels can be the defensive stopper off the Cavaliers’ bench, and potentially as a future starter. Kira Lewis Jr. is a worthwhile flier at backup point guard.
Zooming out, however, this deal doesn’t match what the Cavs sent out last summer; it’s hard for any deal to do that, with the trade market having settled back down in the year since, but it would be a hard move to go all-in for Mitchell and then bail for less after just one year, denying them the chance to see what could have been.
Ingram is a good player, but he isn’t at the level of Mitchell, and that’s a problem in a league where you need at least one “guy” to carry you to a title. Mitchell is close to being that guy; Ingram is not, and doesn’t profile to get to that level.
This deal is “fair” but it doesn’t help the Cavs win a title, even if it does protect against this doomsday scenario that ESPN and others are convinced of. Mitchell seems to love it in Cleveland; it would take more than this deal to get the Cavs to jump ship this early.
Grade: C+