Woj: Donovan Mitchell to Cavs

[Moranis]

Cleveland was 35-21 last year before the injuries were just too much.  That is a 51.25 win pace or you know in that 3 way tie for the 2nd seed.  They basically just swapped Mitchell for Markkanen so a major upgrade.  They should be a mid 50's win team especially as Mobley gets a lot better in year 2.  Now, I don't think they have the pieces to truly co tend in the post season, but they are going have a very good record.

[mobilija]

So....this really makes the East for sure deeper than the West this year....right?

[Briantir]

Celtics, Bucks, 76ers, Heat, and Raptors I believe are still better maybe Cleveland will have a great regular season but i wouldn't trust them in the playoffs.

[Celtics2021]

Food for thought:

Stevens has traded 3 protected 1sts and a swap in the last year or so for 2 seasons of Horford, 3 seasons of Brogdon, and 3.5 seasons of White.  Would it have been better to hold those picks and trade 4 1sts (including Agbaji) and 2 swaps for 3 seasons of Mitchell?  In other words, if you’ve got a youngish, moderately competitive team headlined by a couple of up-and-coming all-stars, is it better to push in all your chips for a third young star to put next to them, or to get multiple starter-level pieces to fill around them?

I'm sure you know we couldn't have made the salaries work without making other problematic moves. Its not like we could have just had him by not making those trades and handing over the picks.

But to answer your question, no, I wouldn't make that trade. The superstar of this team is our defense, and those three guys are a significant part of that. I don't think that Tatum and Brown are good enough unless you make them part of a great defense, even with Mitchell.

Not sure what you mean by "made the salaries work", but essentially the hypothetical is that last offseason rather than investing draft picks in acquiring Horford/dumping Kemba and otherwise acquiring veteran salaries (Richardson, Schroder), the Celtics instead largely stand pat for a year (maybe they still dump Thompson, for example), letting Tatum and Brown lead a team that finishes in the 5-10 range, getting Pritchard, Langford, and Nesmith more minutes to see what we have.  The results probably look similar to the Cavs last year, and we'd have an expiring Kemba (for salary-matching purposes), all of our future firsts, and some recent firsts from 2021 and 2022 to trade for a singular star to go with Tatum and Brown.

To be clear, I prefer the road we're on, but I do think that was an alternative path given the trades that have been made this offseason (Murray, Gobert, and now Mitchell), and I was wondering if anyone would have rather chosen that route.

[Celtics2021]

Cleveland was 35-21 last year before the injuries were just too much.  That is a 51.25 win pace or you know in that 3 way tie for the 2nd seed.  They basically just swapped Mitchell for Markkanen so a major upgrade.  They should be a mid 50's win team especially as Mobley gets a lot better in year 2.  Now, I don't think they have the pieces to truly co tend in the post season, but they are going have a very good record.

No way do they sniff the mid-50s.  49 wins tops.

[Celtics2021]

So....this really makes the East for sure deeper than the West this year....right?

 

[mef730]

Danny finally got that number 8 pick back from the Kyrie trade (Sexton). Wonder if he would have drafted him if he didn’t make that trade.

nope SGA

That’s one of my more painful what-ifs. What if that trade never happened and we did draft SGA?

What if that trade never happened and we put #8 on the table with our SAC pick from the following draft as well as the Memphis pick?  Could we have outbid Dallas when they moved up with Atlanta to take Doncic?  That’s my what-if.

Too much fun to leave this "what if" alone. No, I think that Atlanta was all in on Trae Young, I don't think we would have gotten that done.

But what if Philly had been able to pull a 2018 pick instead of a 2019 pick from Sacramento, the one that was later transferred to us? We would have been picking second, and I feel comfortable saying that DA wouldn't have drafted Marvin Bagley.

Mike

[Neurotic Guy]

So....this really makes the East for sure deeper than the West this year....right?

 

Random thought here I guess, but I hope the C's will establish themselves as dominant homecourt team this season.

[JSD]

Ainge Is a fantastic GM.

[hpantazo]

So where do the Knicks go from here? They really missed out on this opportunity.

[footey]

Danny finally got that number 8 pick back from the Kyrie trade (Sexton). Wonder if he would have drafted him if he didn’t make that trade.

nope SGA

That’s your 20/20 hindsight.

[Who]

So where do the Knicks go from here? They really missed out on this opportunity.

Better off for missing out. Good day for NY.

Donovan Mitchell is a flawed star who is difficult to build around. The Knicks roster is a mess. Putting those two factors together along with the 3rd factor of giving up a huge amount of draft capital would have made this potential deal a disaster for NY.

Today is a very good day for NYK.

[footey]

Cleveland was 35-21 last year before the injuries were just too much.  That is a 51.25 win pace or you know in that 3 way tie for the 2nd seed.  They basically just swapped Mitchell for Markkanen so a major upgrade.  They should be a mid 50's win team especially as Mobley gets a lot better in year 2.  Now, I don't think they have the pieces to truly co tend in the post season, but they are going have a very good record.

Okay. So you predict they are going to win mid-50’s this season (barring injury). That should be high enough to finish top 2 seed based on recent results and competitive balance in East. I’m skeptical.

[DefenseWinsChamps]

I like the new Utah roster. I think Sexton is closer to Donovan Mitchel as a player than most realize. What is he, like 90% of Mitchell except a few stellar playoff performances?

Sexton, Markannen, Beasley, THT, and Vanderbilt is a decent, young, proven core with room for upside. I like all of those players and think they all could be good rotation pieces on a good team. Combine them with prospects like NAW, Kessler, and Bolmaro and that's a good young core. Plus, they are likely to get more value from Conley, Bogdon, and Clarkson before its all said and done.

[gouki88]

I love this deal, mainly because of the hilarity of New York missing out once again.

Great deal for Utah. They've loaded up on youth (Agbaji, THT, NAW, Butler, Kessler, etc.), have a load of picks, and still have some veterans who may be of interest to other teams in Conley, Bogdanovic & Clarkson. Sexton is an interesting piece at that contract.

Not sure about it for Cleveland. That backcourt defence spooks me