The Cleveland Cavaliers are not looking to trade Donovan Mitchell at this time.
That's the current reporting on the situation, by the ever-reliable Jake Fischer and others. The Cavaliers gave up a lot to bring Donovan Mitchell into the fold, and despite his 2025 free agency looming in the recent future they are committed to letting this group of players, with Mitchell at the head, continue to fight for playoff success.
The Cavaliers are hoping that a playoff run with this group, one with everyone back healthy when they win at least one series and are competitive -- in a way that last year's five-game exit was not -- will convince Mitchell to re-sign. The other side of that coin, then, is what it will take to convince the Cavaliers to change their mind and trade Mitchell.
What would it take to trade Donovan Mitchell?
If Mitchell goes to the Cavaliers and asks for a trade, or at the least tells the team he is not going to sign an extension, the front office could be motivated to move him by the Trade Deadline in February. If the season completely falls apart during the injury absences of Darius Garland and Evan Mobley, that likewise could spur them to undergo a soft reset. The strong play of the team over the past two weeks, going 5-1 without those two stars, likely insulates them from that possibility.
What if the offer for Mitchell was strong enough? Would the Cavaliers be willing to move on from Mitchell if the trade package checked enough boxes, sending draft capital, young players and proven veterans?
Let's see if such a deal does exist by evaluating a trade proposal pitched by Bleacher Report.
Laying out the Mitchell trade
The list of teams that would be interested in trading for Donovan Mitchell is long, and it likely includes teams that aren't even being discussed as potential destinations. At the top of the list, however, are three Eastern Conference teams: the Miami Heat, always ready to get into the mix for a star; and the two New York teams, the Knicks and the Brooklyn Nets.
The Knicks have a reasonably deep collection of prospects and draft picks to include in a deal, but the Nets are much more capable of putting together a compelling package for Donovan Mitchell without sacrificing their ability to compete with him.
That's what Bleacher Report highlighted when putting together a "Fantasy Deal" for Mitchell that would be good enough to entice the Cavaliers to come to the table. Here is what they laid out:
The Brooklyn Nets would land a star guard to be the No. 1 on offense, slotting Mikal Bridges easily into the No. 2 role he seems perfectly suited for. They still would have Cam Johnson starting at the 4 and Nic Claxton at the 5, giving them one of the best 2-5 groups in the league. Point guard would be an issue after giving up both Spencer Dinwiddie and Cam Thomas, but the Nets would still have a few assets left to trade for one, or they could slide Mitchell to the 1 and place Royce O'Neale in the starting lineup.
Brooklyn would obviously prefer to use Ben Simmons as the matching salary instead of Dinwiddie and Dorian Finney-Smith, but that's the kind of deal they can entertain if Mitchell were to go to the Cavaliers and tell them he wanted to be traded to Brooklyn. Without that leverage, they need to convince the Cavaliers to include them in the deal.
The Nets could conceivably offer this deal for Mitchell; would the Cavaliers be enticed enough to make the trade?
Is this enough for Mitchell?
To bring in Donovan Mitchell, the Cleveland Cavaliers traded three first-round picks, two first-round pick swaps, a recent first-round pick in Ochai Agbaji, and two solid players in Lauri Markkanen and Collin Sexton. Markkanen becoming an All-Star wasn't in the cards at the time of the deal; he was simply a good player on a solid contract with an up-and-down history in the league.
Any package the Cavaliers get back for Mitchell will be smaller than the one they sent out; Mitchell is closer to free agency, and the trade market has cooled somewhat since that wild summer of deals. Comparing the two trade packages is reasonable given they share a central character, but ultimately the deal has to evaluated on its own merits.
This trade gives the Cavs one of the best replacement Mitchells in the league, as Cam Thomas has exploded this season. He is averaging 22.8 points per game and is capable of breaking down defenses in isolation. He is certainly not at the level of Mitchell, but he can help fill some of the scoring void vacated by him.
Spencer Dinwiddie is a versatile combo guard who can either come off the bench or start alongside Darius Garland; he also would hold value to other teams if Cleveland wanted to reroute him for more help on the wing. Dorian Finney-Smith is having an excellent shooting season and would give this team a proven 3-and-D forward.
The future assets aren't useless either. Noah Clowney is a raw big man who could one day replace Jarrett Allen, while the two first-round picks boast significant upside, especially the Phoenix Suns' 2027 pick.
There may be a slightly better version of this trade out there, perhaps one that brings in a third team to reroute Dinwiddie and dwaps out Clowney for Dariq Whitehead, a talented rookie wing taken back-to-back with Clowney in June's NBA Draft. Even so, this deal sends a lot of value back to the Cavaliers, allowing them to continue competing while working to restock their barren cupboard of assets.
What this deal lacks is that one premium player, a young budding star; there is no Mikal Bridges in the deal, for example, as there was in the Kevin Durant deal. This trade doesn't overwhelm the Cavs in draft capital and it also doesn't have that centerpiece young player, unless you buy into Cam Thomas having that kind of upside.
It likely lacks the oomph to convince the Cavaliers to overcome their commitment to the vision of this team they put together. It's a good offer, and it checks a lot of boxes, but ultimately it's probably not enough unless the Cavaliers are pushed to the table for other reasons.
Grade: B+