3 teams are Currently Pursuing Donovan Mitchell…Who Could Make the Move?
With the news coming back up this week of 3 teams pursuing Donovan Mitchell heavily again, we have to take a look at these teams and what they could bring to the table in a Mitchell offer.
Currently, the 3 teams being brought up in the race for Mitchell are the New York Knicks, Washington Wizards, and Charlotte Hornets. Each of these teams has a pretty viable offer to make for Mitchell, that would definitely interest the seemingly restructured Utah Jazz and Danny Ainge.
In this article I will be covering each team, why they would want Mitchell, their odds to land him, and what they could potentially package for him according to various media sources. So without further ado, let’s start off with the odds on favorites:
New York Knicks (-225)
The favorites to land Donovan Mitchell by a longshot are the New York Knicks, as per DraftKings roughly a week ago. This would make sense as they are the team that has heavily been pursuing him throughout the process according to various sources, and has potentially the best offer sheet of these 3 teams.
The Knicks have remained the favorite in this scenario odds-wise so far, and frankly, if they can get Mitchell without giving up a king’s ransom, they should.
The trade for the Knicks and Jazz would likely have to involve R.J. Barrett, as much value as he has, the chances that he stays in New York for this deal is extremely unlikely. This is also why the Knicks have the best offer sheet however though, as neither Charlotte nor Washington can offer a young up-and-coming star without absolutely imploding their teams.
The current deal that has been going around social media and various opinion outlets has been:
R.J. Barrett, Evan Fournier, 3 first-round picks for Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gay
For the Jazz, they get a young phenom who could be the face of their rebuild, or potentially the #2 option if they hit on one of their newfound picks in the Rudy Gobert deal. While this is not an absolutely insane haul for Utah, it lets them offload Donovan if they want to, and they get viable assets back.
For New York, they finally get the face of their franchise and have one player to build around, while keeping Julius Randle, Mitchell Robinson, Obi Toppin, and Immanuel Quickley.
Charlotte Hornets (+1200)
The Hornets are the next team that was in reports of targeting Donovan, and if they can get him and Lamelo Ball on the same team, they will be in a really good spot for the foreseeable future. This would give Lamelo someone to throw lobs up to and make his flashy passes to, but also give Donovan a true facilitating point guard to play with.
The deal between Charlotte and Utah would be a little more complicated than just one player and picks, as they more than likely would not give up Lamelo for this. However, they would still need to give up 2-3 good players and a relatively large amount of first-round picks.
A deal that Sports Illustrated offered up as a potential idea was:
Terry Rozier, P.J. Washington, Kai Jones, 1sts in ‘23, ‘25, ‘27, and ‘29, as well as swaps in ‘26 and 28’ and a ‘23 2nd
This is a large haul for Donovan, for sure. This deal could potentially get done with just the four firsts and players without the 2 swaps and 2nd more than likely.
Regardless, it is Donovan Mitchell, and the Jazz did just get an absolutely insane package for Rudy Gobert, so they could be looking for the same, or even more value for Mitchell, which is reasonable.
Washington Wizards (+1400)
The Wizards may have the hardest time bringing together a package for Mitchell, but honestly, with their young assets, it could be easier than one would first guess. The Wizards being able to have a phenomenal backcourt duo of Bradley Beal and Donovan would be another great pairing for both of them, as well as for the team itself.
Washington is currently considered the least likely of these 3 teams for this reason, as they do not have an R.J. Barrett to try and trade away, nor the young high-quality talent. But they do have young players on the team who could turn out to be better than expected.
The deals that have surfaced so far have involved 2-3 of the following (Kyle Kuzma, Deni Avdija, Johnny Davis, Rui Hachimura) as well as 3-5 first-round picks. I think the most beneficial combination for both teams would be the following:
Johnny Davis, Deni Avdija, Rui Hachimura + 3 firsts (‘23, ‘27, ‘29) for Donovan Mitchell
This lets the Wizards keep Kyle Kuzma as the 4 on this team alongside Beal and Mitchell, running Kristaps Porzingis at the 5, and Will Barton at the 3.
For Utah, you get 3 young assets who could all develop well, as well as 3 more firsts, which seems to be a fair amount of value for Mitchell if they have less leverage than we expect. An extra 2nd rounder or pick swap could be added to either side if necessary, but overall a pretty good bet for the team with +1400 odds right now.
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