CLEVELAND (AP) — Donovan Mitchell is going east.
The All-Star guard is on his way to the Cleveland Cavaliers, who acquired one of the NBA’s best scorers Thursday in a blockbuster trade with the Utah Jazz, a person familiar with the deal told The Associated Press.
Cleveland is sending guard Collin Sexton, forward Lauri Markkanen and rookie guard Ochai Agbaji along with three unprotected first-round picks to the Jazz, said the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity because it still must be approved by the league.
ESPN was the first to report Mitchell’s exit from Utah.
Sexton, who played in just 11 games last season before undergoing knee surgery, will sign a four-year, $72 million contract as part of a sign-and-trade agreement with Utah, his agent Rich Paul confirmed for AP.
There had been speculation for months that Mitchell might get moved, and it appeared the New York Knicks were the frontrunner for him. But when talks with Utah broke down, Cleveland jumped in and general manager Koby Altman added a player capable of pushing the Cavs into title contention.
Cleveland hasn’t made the playoffs since 2018, when LeBron James led the Cavs to their fourth straight Finals.
The 6-foot-1 Mitchell can take over a game, and he’ll give Cavs coach J.B. Bickerstaff a player to run his offense through as well as another late-game option.
The Cavs are also giving up unprotected first-round picks in 2025, 2027 and 2029 and swapping picks in 2026 and 2028, said the person.
A three-time All-Star in five seasons with Utah, the 25-year-old Mitchell is one of the league’s elite backcourt players and his acquisition could push the Cavs, who won 44 games last season — a 22-game improvement — with a young nucleus, among the top teams in the loaded Eastern Conference.
Mitchell, who averaged 25.9 points per game last season, will pair in Cleveland with All-Star point guard Darius Garland. He’ll also play with All-Star center Jarett Allen and forward Evan Mobley, who had a strong rookie season averaging 15.0 points, 8.3 rebounds and 1.7 blocks.
Mitchell signed a five-year, $163 million contract in 2020 and is under contract through the 2026 season.
Cleveland also has Garland and Allen locked up to long-term deals.
The 23-year-old Sexton was hoping to make a comeback this season with the Cavs, who couldn’t work out an extension with him last season. He was a restricted free agent this summer, but there was little market for him.
Sexton’s a proven scorer (he averaged 24.3 in 2020), but became expendable for Cleveland due to Garland’s development and the club’s talented frontline.
The 7-foot Markkanen averaged 14.8 points and 5.7 rebounds in his first season with the Cavs, who made the play-in round last season before losing to Brooklyn and Atlanta.
Agbaji was drafted by Cleveland with the No. 14 overall pick this year after helping Kansas win a national championship.
This is the second major trade during this offseason for Utah, which started its rebuild in July by trading All-Star center Rudy Gobert to Minnesota.
The Mitchell trade gives Utah even more draft capital. The Jazz now have at least 13 first-round picks, plus the two swaps that were part of this deal, over the next seven drafts. The Jazz currently have three first-round picks in 2023, 2025, 2027 and 2029.
But the Jazz are starting over now, in so many ways.
The re-do in Utah started in early June when Quin Snyder — who had guided the Jazz to six consecutive playoff appearances, but never got them out of the second round — decided to end his eight-year run as coach.
The last straw may have been how this past season started with great promise before fizzling. Utah started 7-1 and was 26-9 at one point but went just 25-28 after Jan. 1.
Utah eventually hired Will Hardy to coach, though there was still speculation then about whether the Jazz would break up the 1-2 punch of Mitchell and Gobert. Now, they’re both gone.
The Mitchell-Gobert relationship was clearly strained at times, going back to at least the start of the pandemic, when Gobert was the first NBA player to test positive for COVID-19 and Mitchell tested positive a day later.
They now get new starts elsewhere, and the Jazz are in the full throes of a rebuild — just as Cleveland was not long ago.
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Shutterstock
Photo Credit: Oleksii Sidorov / Shutterstock
With the 2021-22 NBA season drawing to a close this month, the league’s teams and fans are taking stock of the year and looking ahead to next season. Only one franchise can hoist the Larry O’Brien trophy each June, but teams can have successful or unsuccessful years in other ways. This season, upstart teams like the Memphis Grizzlies and Toronto Raptors exceeded expectations on their way to playoff berths, while star-studded squads like the Brooklyn Nets and Los Angeles Lakers delivered disappointing campaigns.
One important measure of success for many teams is playoff appearances. Making the playoffs can be an important milestone for a young team’s development: for instance, the Phoenix Suns snapped a decade-long playoff drought last year on their way to earning the league’s best record in 2021-22. A playoff berth could also mean a return to relevance, as was the case this year for one of the league’s premier franchises, the Chicago Bulls, who made their first playoffs since 2016-17.
But in some NBA cities, playoff appearances are a baseline expectation. Boston is one of the NBA’s most storied cities, with a total of 59 playoff seasons and 17 NBA championships. While both the Lakers and the Clippers missed the playoffs this year, Los Angeles has seen a playoff berth in more than 90% of total seasons. And while Boston and Los Angeles both have long histories in the league and are destination markets, some comparatively newer NBA markets have seen sustained runs of excellence as well. San Antonio has had a playoff appearance in 84.8% of eligible seasons, while Salt Lake City has had a playoff team in 72.1% of eligible seasons.
Shutterstock
Photo Credit: Oleksii Sidorov / Shutterstock
With the 2021-22 NBA season drawing to a close this month, the league’s teams and fans are taking stock of the year and looking ahead to next season. Only one franchise can hoist the Larry O’Brien trophy each June, but teams can have successful or unsuccessful years in other ways. This season, upstart teams like the Memphis Grizzlies and Toronto Raptors exceeded expectations on their way to playoff berths, while star-studded squads like the Brooklyn Nets and Los Angeles Lakers delivered disappointing campaigns.
One important measure of success for many teams is playoff appearances. Making the playoffs can be an important milestone for a young team’s development: for instance, the Phoenix Suns snapped a decade-long playoff drought last year on their way to earning the league’s best record in 2021-22. A playoff berth could also mean a return to relevance, as was the case this year for one of the league’s premier franchises, the Chicago Bulls, who made their first playoffs since 2016-17.
But in some NBA cities, playoff appearances are a baseline expectation. Boston is one of the NBA’s most storied cities, with a total of 59 playoff seasons and 17 NBA championships. While both the Lakers and the Clippers missed the playoffs this year, Los Angeles has seen a playoff berth in more than 90% of total seasons. And while Boston and Los Angeles both have long histories in the league and are destination markets, some comparatively newer NBA markets have seen sustained runs of excellence as well. San Antonio has had a playoff appearance in 84.8% of eligible seasons, while Salt Lake City has had a playoff team in 72.1% of eligible seasons.
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For cities longing for playoff basketball, the NBA created a new way for teams to qualify with the introduction of the play-in tournament in the 2019-20 season. Under the current format, teams ranked 7th through 10th in each conference at the end of the regular season compete for the 7th and 8th seeds in the playoff bracket. This setup has allowed more teams a shot at earning a spot in the playoffs. In the 2021-22 season, the Minnesota Timberwolves and New Orleans Pelicans each made their first playoff appearances since 2017-18 after surviving the play-in.
Despite the creation of the play-in, some cities have been waiting years to see their local team return to the playoffs. Among the 28 metros that host NBA franchises, only Charlotte and Sacramento have failed to make the playoffs in the last five years, though Charlotte qualified for the play-in in each of the last two seasons.
For cities longing for playoff basketball, the NBA created a new way for teams to qualify with the introduction of the play-in tournament in the 2019-20 season. Under the current format, teams ranked 7th through 10th in each conference at the end of the regular season compete for the 7th and 8th seeds in the playoff bracket. This setup has allowed more teams a shot at earning a spot in the playoffs. In the 2021-22 season, the Minnesota Timberwolves and New Orleans Pelicans each made their first playoff appearances since 2017-18 after surviving the play-in.
Despite the creation of the play-in, some cities have been waiting years to see their local team return to the playoffs. Among the 28 metros that host NBA franchises, only Charlotte and Sacramento have failed to make the playoffs in the last five years, though Charlotte qualified for the play-in in each of the last two seasons.
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With 16 teams making the playoffs each season and some cities having been blessed with well-run franchises or Hall of Fame players over the years, some NBA markets can look forward to playoff basketball more often than not.
To find the cities with the most NBA playoff seasons, researchers at HotDog.com ranked U.S. and Canadian metropolitan areas according to total NBA playoff seasons. In the analysis, a playoff season was defined as a season in which a metro area was represented by at least one NBA team in the playoffs. Regular season tiebreakers and play-in tournament games were not counted as playoff games. Only locations with at least one playoff season were considered, and all NBA seasons since the NBA was founded in 1946 were included. In the event of a tie, the location with the higher percentage of playoff seasons was ranked higher. Further ties were broken according to the most recent playoff season. The data was sourced from basketball-reference.com.
Here are the cities with the most NBA playoff seasons.
With 16 teams making the playoffs each season and some cities having been blessed with well-run franchises or Hall of Fame players over the years, some NBA markets can look forward to playoff basketball more often than not.
To find the cities with the most NBA playoff seasons, researchers at HotDog.com ranked U.S. and Canadian metropolitan areas according to total NBA playoff seasons. In the analysis, a playoff season was defined as a season in which a metro area was represented by at least one NBA team in the playoffs. Regular season tiebreakers and play-in tournament games were not counted as playoff games. Only locations with at least one playoff season were considered, and all NBA seasons since the NBA was founded in 1946 were included. In the event of a tie, the location with the higher percentage of playoff seasons was ranked higher. Further ties were broken according to the most recent playoff season. The data was sourced from basketball-reference.com.
Here are the cities with the most NBA playoff seasons.
FILE - Utah Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell (45) looks at the scoreboard as he runs up the court during the first half of the team's NBA basketball game against the Los Angeles Lakers on March 31, 2022, in Salt Lake City. The Cleveland Cavaliers have agreed to acquire All-Star guard Mitchell in a blockbuster trade with the Utah Jazz, a person familiar with the deal told the Associated Press on Thursday, Sept. 1, 2022. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)
Rick Bowmer
FILE - Utah Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell (45) looks at the scoreboard as he runs up the court during the first half of the team's NBA basketball game against the Los Angeles Lakers on March 31, 2022, in Salt Lake City. The Cleveland Cavaliers have agreed to acquire All-Star guard Mitchell in a blockbuster trade with the Utah Jazz, a person familiar with the deal told the Associated Press on Thursday, Sept. 1, 2022. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)
