The Cleveland Cavaliers have reportedly made a splash move!
According to The Athletic’s Shams Charania, Cleveland has acquired three-time All-Star Donovan Mitchell from the Utah Jazz in exchange for Collin Sexton, Lauri Markkanen, 2022 first-round pick Ochai Agbaji, three first-round picks, and two pick swaps.
Cleveland is sending its three unprotected picks to Utah in 2025, 2027, and 2029 and picks swaps in 2026 and 2028, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
Sexton, a restricted free agent, is reportedly signing a four-year, $72 million deal with the Jazz.
It appeared that the 25-year-old Mitchell would be traded to the Knicks, but the two teams could not reportedly come together on a deal.
Utah continues to rebuild, while the Cavs appear to be a team that’s going for it. Cleveland will have a very potent backcourt with All-Stars Mitchell and Darius Garland. They have an All-Star center in Jarrett Allen and a player that could be an All-Star in second-year forward Evan Mobley. In addition, Mitchell still has three years left on his contract, which is great.
However, they gave up a lot of future assets. Plus, is there much difference between the backcourt of Sexton/Garland and Mitchell/Garland? Sexton(6-1), like Mitchell(6-1), can score the ball at a high level, and like Mitchell, they are both undersized shooting guards, so that could be something to pay attention to going forward.
Last season, Cleveland went a surprising 44-38 and lost twice in the Play-In Tournament, which caused them to miss the playoffs. They wanted to take that next step; a move like this should go a long way in making that happen.
Cleveland is definitely in the mix in the Eastern Conference. Not saying they are championship contenders, but on paper, they will be a tough out for anybody.
Clearly, there has to be a lot of excitement in Cleveland, and there probably has not been this type of excitement since LeBron James left.
