Ambition and desperation met at an intersection when the Cleveland Cavaliers and Utah Jazz consummated a blockbuster trade headlined by Donovan Mitchell going East — not to New York — and cementing Danny Ainge taking a sledgehammer to the Jazz roster for what’s sure to be an ugly-ish rebuild.
Cleveland was ambitious enough to go after Mitchell, and Utah desperate enough to get off the Western hamster wheel that inevitably ends in San Francisco.
In sending restricted free agent Collin Sexton, Lauri Markkanen and Ochai Agbaji to Utah for a dynamic All-Star in Mitchell, the Cavaliers announced their candidacy for long-term stability in the East. The cost of doing business has risen in recent years, and slow-walking won’t always get it done.
Mitchell’s days in Utah were numbered, particularly when Ainge gave 34-year-old coach Will Hardy a five-year contract in late June and shipped out All-Star center Rudy Gobert to Minnesota not too long after.
Ainge wasn’t going to tiptoe around a rebuild, taking not just the whole page but scanning Sam Presti’s entire playbook in attempting to gather as many future first-round picks and pick swaps to go hunting sooner rather than later.
Mitchell garnering three unprotected firsts and two more pick swaps is a haul.
At times, he’s been a spectacular playoff performer, but the pressure will ratchet up in Cleveland and he’ll be expected to lead the young core headlined by Darius Garland and second-year big man Evan Mobley.
Mitchell has the playoff experience relative to anyone associated with the Cavs’ future and a fresh start will perhaps unlock him even more.
There are a lot of players who can create their own shot and a lot of relative youth in that Cavaliers locker room. Coach J.B. Bickerstaff will have to preach sacrifice and exercise patience, because the temptation for everyone on a team that came within a sniff of the playoffs is to do more — even before adding a ball-dominant piece in Mitchell.
Garland is locked up, and so is Mitchell, for the foreseeable future. Life is a lot easier when your backcourt doesn’t feel like contracts are on the line with every shot taken — one less complication when this acquisition presents a few solvable ones.
For those who complain small-market teams can’t compete, this is the formula — in theory: Use your draft picks…