When the Utah Jazz acquired Donovan Mitchell on draft night in 2017, it started an unexpected fun era of basketball for the franchise. There was a lot of turbulence along the way, but following the loss of Gordon Hayward, Mitchell continued to make Jazz basketball fun when no one thought he would.
But, as everyone knows, those days are long gone, and the Jazz can now look to the future. Jazz fans never hesitate to let Mitchell know how much they appreciate his mark on the franchise, but he is firmly in the past.
However, what makes the Mitchell era even crazier is that the Jazz acquiring him in 2017 may have stopped an NBA dynasty from forming.
Acquiring Mitchell stopped Denver from forming the NBA's next dynasty
Everyone who remembers the Mitchell trade full and well knows that the Jazz got him in a trade with the Denver Nuggets in exchange for Trey Lyles and Tyler Lydon. It's fair to say that was one of the best trades in Jazz history, no matter how things shook out.
At that point, the Nuggets were waiting in the wings thanks to hotshot youngster Nikola Jokic, who everyone knew was the next great thing, but how great was the question. CBS Sports' Sam Quinn revealed how much the Jazz inadvertently screwed up the Nuggets' plans that night.
I think a lot about how the Nuggets wanted to draft OG Anunoby in 2017, thought they could get him later, so they gave up the Donovan Mitchell pick and ended up with Trey Lyles and Tyler Lydon.
— Sam Quinn (@SamQuinnCBS) April 20, 2025
A pretty significant amount of NBA history hinges on that sequence of events.
Had the Nuggets drafted Mitchell instead, there's no telling how many titles they would have won with him and Jokic side by side. Sure, the Nuggets had Jamal Murray, who may have been redundant next to Mitchell, but it would have been a good problem to have if it even became a problem to begin with.
Even if they had gotten their guy in Anunoby, who turned into one of the best 3&D wings in the NBA, that may have given them just enough oomph to compete. The Nuggets also added esteemed Jazz alum Paul Millsap just as he was falling out of his prime that offseason, which may have given them enough depth along the perimeter to make a fearsome team.
It's impressive that the Nuggets won a title in 2023, despite missing out on Mitchell (Note: look at some of the other drafts from around that time, and you'll see how many players they've missed out on over the years).
If all went well for Denver, they may have been the team to take down the Hamptons Five Warriors. Instead, they wound up with Lyles, who panned out as a perfectly average rotation big, and Lydon, who lasted in the NBA for two years.
Things may not have worked out as well as the Jazz would have liked with Mitchell, but acquiring him from Denver played a huge role in how the current NBA is the way it is.
Making this all the more painful is that the Nuggets were also responsible for giving the Jazz Rudy Gobert's draft rights four years prior to Mitchell. If anything, this shows that if the Nuggets are selling off the pick, the Jazz should come calling.
Every. Time.