The Cleveland Cavaliers don’t plan to trade Donovan Mitchell this offseason; that would be acknowledging defeat on the trade way too early, especially as the market has shifted in the last 12 months. They would not get the same value back that they paid for him despite the career year he just had.
There is a reasonable case to be made to move Mitchell now; if you believe that he is unlikely to re-sign in Cleveland, moving him now ensures the strongest package as he has two years remaining before he can hit free agency. That reasoning tends to make sense to those who thought the Cavs shouldn’t have ever traded for Mitchell, however, and clearly the Cleveland front office is on the other side of that line.
Which teams would be targeting Donovan Mitchell in a trade?
Any trade speculation around Donovan Mitchell is enough for teams to start calling, however. Big-market teams and/or teams that are contenders right now make sense as potential trade suitors for Mitchell, and perhaps none make as much sense as the Boston Celtics.
That was the thinking behind a recent trade idea from Bleacher Report, which ran a piece last week highlighting each team’s worst contract and building a trade idea around that player. We looked at the Cavaliers’ “worst contract trade” a few days ago, and how Max Strus could be flipped to the Brooklyn Nets for a wing.
There was another trade built involving the Cavaliers, and this one involved Donovan Mitchell heading to the Celtics in exchange for Boston’s worst contract. Let’s look at the details and then evaluate the deal from both sides.
Laying out a Cavaliers trade with Boston
There are a couple of different players on the Boston Celtics roster who would be candidates for its “worst contract” so that question has to be answered first. There is no trade package they are building around Malcolm Brogdon that is going to entice the Cavaliers to pull the trigger.
Bleacher Report instead pointed to Jaylen Brown, who just inked his name to a five-year supermax extension after making an All-NBA team this past season. Adding in this upcoming season, Brown is now under contract for six years and over $300 million; the final amount will be determined next season depending on how much the cap goes up.
Who is the more valuable player between Jaylen Brown and Donovan Mitchell? Thankfully, B/R recognized that it would be Mitchell, both in a vacuum and given Brown’s outsized contract. That led to a trade sending assets back to the Cavaliers alongside Jaylen Brown:
Right off the bat, we need to highlight the massive problem with this trade: it’s not legal. Bleacher Report stated that Brown could not be traded until late January, which would be six months after he agreed to the extension. That is not correct; because he signed a supermax extension (technically called a “designated veteran extension”), Brown is not eligible to be traded for a full calendar year. If we fast forward to late July of 2024, Brown’s salary would be higher than Mitchell’s, Payton Pritchard would be a free agent and that 2024 first-round pick would already have been made. Whoops.
With that being said, it’s still a helpful exercise to think through, both because these two teams may be interested in building out a trade like this next summer, and to peer closer at what both teams would need in a deal for their stars. Let’s take a look at why the Celtics might make this trade, were it to be possible.
Would Boston pull the trigger?
The Boston Celtics have a pair of All-NBA wings who can defend multiple positions, shoot from outside and score at a high level. That’s the dream in building an NBA team, as it unlocks tremendous lineup versatility at the other three positions. The Celtics can slide Brown to the 2 to start two bigs, then move him back down the lineup to play small. If your two best players are small guards, like the Cavaliers, there is no sliding “down” the lineup to add another guard.
With that being said, Brown has some limitations that are ever-so-slightly lowering Boston’s ceiling. His handle is decent for a wing but has been taken advantage of in the playoffs, and his playmaking is fairly vanilla. If teams take Jayson Tatum out of a possession, Brown has struggled to create offense.
Donovan Mitchell has no such issues; he lives to create offense against tough defenses. He is a better shooter than Brown, both by percentage and level-of-difficulty on the shots. He is far from prime Rajon Rondo but is still a plus-passer, while his ability to attack off the dribble and get into the paint opens up more options than Brown’s straight-line forays.
The Celtics would be taking a bit of a defensive hit by adding Mitchell, but they probably have the pieces around him in Derrick White, Jayson Tatum, Kristaps Porzingis and Robert Williams III to survive that. The Celtics should also have more confidence than Cleveland in re-signing Mitchell given the market and proximity to New York. Mitchell has also reached heights that Brown has not, making it more palatable to pay him at a supermax level.
Interestingly enough, our sister-site Hardwood Houdini graded this fake trade themselves and gave it a “C-” because of the extra value of adding in Payton Pritchard and the first-round pick. Those seem like nominal assets to accomplish a trade that would seem like a clear win for Boston if they had some level of indication that Mitchell would re-sign.
Grade: B+
Would the Cavs say yes?
The Boston Celtics would be making this trade in order to raise their offensive ceiling and get off of Jaylen Brown’s massive six-year supermax contract. For the Cavaliers, making this trade would be to get a star under contract for six years; that dichotomy may be exactly what would be necessary to get this kind of deal done.
Donovan Mitchell walking in two years is a real danger for the Cavaliers; players don’t tend to sign in Cleveland if they have better options, and replacing Mitchell would be nearly impossible. Trading him for Jaylen Brown, who is under contract until 2028-29, would ensure they have a co-star for Darius Garland and Evan Mobley for a long time.
Making this move is also a bet on Garland, that he can be the top offensive creator, slotting Jaylen Brown into the co-star role he is more cut out for. It also puts more of a burden on Evan Mobley to develop as an offensive threat. On the flip side, however, it gives the Cavaliers more flexibility in finding their fifth starter, be that Max Strus or a player not on the roster.
Paying Brown $65 million in 2028-29 seems insane, and it’s certainly an overpay, but a small market team with a rich owner likely needs an overpay or two to maintain a contender. Adding a defender like Brown in front of Mobley and Jarrett Allen raises their defensive ceiling, and it’s possible that the growth of Garland offsets the loss to their offensive ceiling.
Add in the long-term viability of their core being under contract for the next five seasons (assuming Evan Mobley signs a max rookie extension next summer, which he almost certainly will) and this deal looks incredibly tempting. Add in a first-round pick and a backup point guard in Payton Pritchard and it becomes even more valuable to the Cavaliers. Too bad it’s not legal.
Grade: A-