The Donovan Mitchell saga finally ended on Thursday afternoon, and the Utah Jazz are several assets richer as a result.
In their second blockbuster deal of the summer, Danny Ainge and company shipped off their star for yet another trove of valuable assets. In the trade, the Cleveland Cavaliers are sending Lauri Markkanen, Ochai Agbaji, three unprotected first-round picks, and two pick swaps to Utah in exchange for Mitchell.
Adrian Wojnarowski had more information on when these picks will come to fruition:
Cleveland is sending its three unprotected picks to Utah in 2025, 2027 and 2029 and picks swaps in 2026 and 2028, sources tell ESPN. Along with the Rudy Gobert trade with Minnesota, Utah has gathered 13 unprotected or lightly protected picks through 2029.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) September 1, 2022
The truck full of picks plus other talents is similar to what the Jazz received in their July deal of Rudy Gobert to the Minnesota Timberwolves. In addition to five players, they received four first-round picks and a pick swap in that trade.
As the SBNation Twitter account shared shortly after Mitchell was moved, Utah made out like bandits in both deals, even if it came at the expense of its two stars.
The full haul the Jazz got for Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert:
— SB Nation (@SBNation) September 1, 2022
Malik Beasley
Leandro Bolmaro
Walker Kessler (No.22 pick)
Jarred Vanderbilt
Collin Sexton
Lauri Markkanen
Ochai Agbaji (No.14 pick)
Talen Horton-Tucker
Stanley Johnson
7 1st round picks
3 1st round picks swaps pic.twitter.com/PVFkvzqYeP
The future of the Utah Jazz is completely stacked with picks
Not only are standout players like Collin Sexton and Lauri Markkanen included in the return for Mitchell and Gobert, but more importantly, Utah now has a wealth of first-round picks to help accelerate their rebuild.
Make no mistake, this season is going to be rough for this iteration of the Utah Jazz with their stars now gone, but the writing was on the wall for a while now that there needed to be a blow-up. What Ainge did here is assure his club will have loads of assets to use in both future trades and upcoming talent-heavy NBA Drafts.
Knowing something needed to change this offseason, these returns are about as good as fans could’ve hoped for.
For a complete list of Utah’s upcoming draft picks, our colleagues at FanSided.com have you covered here.