The Donovan Mitchell trade, the Jazz’s greatest trade in franchise history
Utah Jazz v New York Knicks
Photo by Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE via Getty Images
In the 2020-2021 NBA season, the Utah Jazz, led by likely future hall-of-famers Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell, had the best regular season record in the NBA. The Jazz also had by far the best point differential at plus 9.2, 3.4 higher than second place. Come playoff time, Utah made quick work of the rising Memphis Grizzlies, beating them in 5 games. In round 2, the Jazz got out to a 2-game lead against the star-studded Los Angeles Clippers, largely due to the heroics of Donovan Mitchell. Injuries played a large part in altering this playoff series, as Conley missed all but 1 game and Mitchell’s ankle was deteriorating. For the Clippers, Kawhi Leonard injured his ACL in game 4 and missed the remainder of the playoffs. The Jazz ended up losing the series in 6 games. Their team perimeter defense got torched by Paul George, Reggie Jackson, and Terrance Mann (every playoff series loss in the Gobert-Mitchell era included a star or role player guard destroying the Jazz). After this playoff defeat, the 2021-2022 Jazz showed signs of being unfixable. the 2022 off-season was when the Jazz decided to rebuild. Despite this being the best off-season in Jazz history because of the returns for trading Mitchell and Gobert, the Mitchell-Gobert Utah Jazz era had some amazing moments. Below are 3 great moments.
Rudy Gobert was traded for a larger return than anticipated. The Jazz so far have had great success with Keyonte George, who was taken with the Wolves 2023 pick, and Walker Kessler. The Jazz also own the Timberwolves first round draft picks from 2025-2027, along with their lightly protected 2029 pick. This was a great return, likely the 2nd greatest return in Utah Jazz trade history.
The Gobert trade significantly helped the Jazz in their long-term rebuild efforts. The Gobert trade still is currently not as valuable as the Donovan Mitchell trade (with unprotected first round picks on the line, we won’t officially know which trade return was better until the 2030s). The Jazz traded Mitchell in September for 3 players with potential but also with real chances to fizzle-out and the Cav’s first round draft rights from 2025-2029.
Collin Sexton came to the Jazz as the projected best player returning in the Donovan Mitchell trade. In his first year with the Jazz, Lauri Markkanen became a breakout star and is seen as the face of the franchise. Collin Sexton’s year 1 production was more of a disappointment, primarily due to his health as he only played 48 games. Sexton also only started 15 games. Year two for Sexton has been a different story, as he has become the Jazz’s clear cut 2nd best player on the team, only behind Markkanen.
Andy Bailey’s average of 8 advanced stats has Lauri Markkanen as the 23rd best player of the 2023-2024 season and Collin Sexton as the 39th. Collin Sexton has averaged 18.5 points on .493/.402/.862, a career best shooting efficiency. Sexton is also averaging a career high in assists at 4.8. An interesting aspect of Sexton’s potential long-term role with the Jazz is that he has come off the bench 37 games this season. While Sexton coming off the bench early in the season may have been due to his mediocre play, on March 16th, Sexton moved to a bench role, despite being the best guard on the team. This move into a 6th man role has not hindered Sexton’s production, as he is scoring 23 points a game at around 60% shooting and logging 6 assists a game. The Jazz may see Sexton as a championship level 6th man who is an offensive spark, similar to Jason Terry on the 2011 Mavericks and Vinnie Johnson on the 1989 and 1990 Pistons. Regardless of how the Jazz see Sexton, his career year has made the Donovan Mitchell trade even sweeter for Utah.
Donovan Mitchell is a special player and an all-time great Jazzman, but he is not worth the by far 2 best players of the Jazz’s young core, 3 unprotected first round picks, and 2 unprotected first round pick swaps. The value of the draft picks from the Cav’s are immense because in a league as volatile as the NBA, you never know which team will be good or bad next season, especially for the next 5 seasons.
The Jazz may end up completing the rebuild by trading away Markkanen or Sexton, but that doesn’t mean their value is less for Utah. An example, say Markkanen is worth $1,000,000 and Sexton $500,000, whether the Jazz use that money to buy a mansion (keeping them on the roster) or to invest in stocks (trading them for draft picks), the Jazz are still rich. Not to mention that the picks the Cavs sent are worth another 1,500,000 million, the same value as Donovan Mitchell in this scenario. The point is that the Jazz got the worth of 2 Donovan Mitchell’s by trading 1 DonovanMitchell, which makes the Donovan Mitchell trade the greatest trade in franchise history.
