The Cleveland Cavaliers are not likely to trade Donovan Mitchell this offseason. They have unfinished business from their early playoff exit last season, he seems to genuinely enjoy playing in Cleveland, and they project to be a contender next year. It’s very likely they stay the course heading into the season.
The pull in the other direction is the timetable of Mitchell’s contract. He can be a free agent in two summers and is unlikely to sign an extension this summer. They can wait until next summer to see if he turns down an extension then, too, but if they wanted to maximize the return for Mitchell now would be the optimal time purely from a trade-return standpoint.
The other point to consider is the viability of winning a title with two small guards. Just because it hasn’t been done before doesn’t mean it can’t be done, but recent title winners have had much more size among their best players. Should the Cavs consider moving Mitchell at the peak of his value and to achieve better roster balance?
Who would the Cavaliers target in a Mitchell trade?
If they were going to do that, they would likely be targeting a young player who can grow with Darius Garland and Evan Mobley. While trading him for a veteran like Paul George or Damian Lillard is conceivable, it doesn’t make sense for this core.
Is there a rising star on a team that could convince itself it was ready to push some chips into the middle and win now? There is at least one that comes to mind, and it wouldn’t require Mitchell to travel all that far. Let’s take a look at one such trade and who would be coming back to the Cavaliers.
What a trade for Mitchell could look like
The Cavaliers have their current core locked up for at least the next three seasons, and with everyone 25 years old and younger (Darius Garland is 23; Evan Mobley 22) they can be patient and deal for a player who will reach his peak with this group, rather than prioritizing win-now talent.
Cade Cunningham of the Detroit Pistons presents an intriguing option to fit that bill. He and Mobley went in the top 3 of our 2021 Redraft, and since then the encouraging reports of Cunningham’s play with the Team USA Select Team are likely enough for him to pass Franz Wagner for second. It would be a tantalizing pairing of talent putting Cunningham and Mobley together.
This trade likely would have included more going back to Cleveland, but Cunningham’s stock is rising after missing most of last season due to injury. Here is a simple version of a construction between the two teams:
The Pistons have been wallowing at the bottom of the standings for a few years now and seem ready to take a step forward. They got better this summer without rushing things, but that doesn’t mean they weren’t trying to find a way to take a bigger step. This would let them get much better right now.
Mitchell and Jaden Ivey would be a lot of juice in the backcourt, and there is an intriguing collection of big man talent on the Pistons to play pick-and-roll with Mitchell. Bojan Bogdanovic is an elite shooter with a lot of experience playing alongside Mitchell, and the athleticism of a team with Ivey, Mitchell and Ausar Thompson could break teams in transition.
Young teams with an intriguing prospect tend to hold onto those players on the hope that they reach their ceiling, but Detroit could prove the exception to the rule. They haven’t had a guard make even an All-Star team since Allen Iverson in 2008-09; Mitchell would give them something they haven’t had in a very long time.
Would the Cavaliers accept this trade?
Assuming for the moment that the Pistons would be willing to hit the gas on this deal, should the Cavaliers join in? Moving Mitchell is certainly a huge move, a reversal of their deal last summer and an acknowledgment that they aren’t confident he will re-sign.
Would this deal provide the right return to make the front office confident they’re on the right side of the trade? Cade Cunningham looks like a future All-Star as a ball-handling wing, with a good jumpshot that is better than his percentages have shown (84.4 percent from the line) and real defensive chops and effort.
At 6’6″ he also makes for a very different backcourt partner for Darius Garland. Instead of dealing with two small guards that make cross-matching nearly impossible, the size of Cunningham allows the Cavs more options when setting its defense and allows for different configurations of forwards as well.
On the other hand, however, Cunningham’s shot hasn’t gone in yet; he is 30.9 percent for his career from long-range, and he hasn’t been an elite finisher from 2-point range either (47.1 percent). If he can’t shoot reliably, pairing him with Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen essentially neuters the Cavs’ offense no matter how good of a passer he is.
It’s a bold swing, and if the shot comes around this could be the kind of swing that establishes a championship-winning core. The two-way combination of Cade, Garland and Mobley could be that good. It could also lower their ceiling for next season while taking a swing on a player who hasn’t yet put it together in the league.
If the Cavs could get a little more juice from this deal, or if they thought Mobley was ready to take a major step forward, this would be an easy one to accept. As it is there are a lot of things to like, and some very real downsides, making it a fascinating trade to consider.
Grade: B+