Brian Windhorst Is At It Again, This Time With His Sights Set On Donovan Mitchell
Jeff Swinger. Getty Images.Live look at Sean Marks
I'm sorry if you thought you were clicking on a Donovan Mitchell is about to be traded blog. The game is the game during this down time before we get going with the Vegas Summer League. As always, I appreciate the pageview!
At the same time, this is still a pretty important update. As far as I'm concerned, Windy is the #1 guy to listen to and buy into when it comes to Jazz news. I have no idea who his source is, but I trust everything this man says when it comes to what the Jazz are thinking/doing. That's a weird place for my brain to be because for years you could usually just chalk Windy's reporting up to whatever LeBron told him, but he's earned that respect this summer when it comes to the Jazz. He's scooping everyone and hasn't been wrong yet so why doubt him?
Why I think this is important is pretty simple. Right now there are two huge trade situations that basically have the entire NBA by the balls. The first is obviously KD, the second is whatever the hell is going on in PHX with Deandre Ayton. When it comes to KD, the Nets asking price is so goddamn high, the feel we've gotten is that nobody is really willing to gut their team for a 34 year old no matter how fucking awesome he is at basketball. I can understand that, especially if you're a team that's already contending. If you look at the list of teams he said he wanted to go to, given the fact that Ben Simmons is on the Nets roster basically makes it virtually impossible for him to get there while still meeting the Nets price. Remember this?
It's not just the Heat. If you're someone who has a rookie max extension, as long as Simmons is on the Nets roster, that takes them out of the Durant sweepstakes given the type of player the Nets are asking for in return. With all of the recent extensions we just saw signed, that list now includes:
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You can also add Zion to the list as well after he signed his 5/192M extension yesterday. You can see where this gets complicated given that Durant wants to play with 2 All Stars after the trade gets completed.
So why does this reporting on Mitchell matter? Because for a while now, a popular rumor/solution to all this was some sort of 3 team trade involving Deandre Ayton/Donovan Mitchell/Kevin Durant/Ben Simmons. As soon as the Jazz traded Gobert, I think most people were under the impression that Danny Ainge was about to smash that rebuild button and obtain so many 1st round picks that Sam Presti would be jealous. But now if Mitchell is off the table, that kills the idea of that potential 3 team trade which makes pulling off a massive haul for KD even tougher.
This news also tells us that all the speculation about Mitchell hating Rudy Gobert like poison was probably true. With Gobert on the team, there was smoke around Mitchell asking out. Gobert is promptly traded and now Mitchell is good to stay in UTA even though they look like a team that is diving head first into a rebuild? That's….interesting.
It sort of feels like maybe Mitchell is heading down the Bradley Beal path, which you could argue is pretty lucrative
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At the same time, this is a Trader Danny team now. It might not even matter if Mitchell wants to be traded or not, but I don't really see someone like Ainge getting rid of his franchise player as a path to potentially help someone like Pat Riley land a big star. Ainge hates Pat Riley more than you hate anything in your own life.
Nobody knows how or when this is all going to shake out. It could happen any second or it could be dragged into training camp. But the one thing we do know is that right now if you hear Windy reporting on the Jazz, you listen. If he says Donovan Mitchell is happy being on the Jazz and won't be demanding a trade, then