All hints suggest that Utah Jazz alum Donovan Mitchell will spend the duration of his prime with the Cleveland Cavaliers, as he just agreed to a lucrative extension to remain with the team for likely the entirety of his prime. Mitchell isn't the Jazz's problem anymore, but his extension means the Jazz bet wrong when they traded him.
ESPN's Brian Windhorst revealed that Utah traded Mitchell believing that he wouldn't be in Cleveland for long, which would raise the value of the draft assets the Cavaliers owe them down the line considerably.
The Jazz could still get the Cavaliers' first-round pick next year, but only if it's not the most favorable pick between Cleveland's, Utah's, and Minnesota's, thanks to the Jaren Jackson Jr. trade. Next season, Utah will receive the most favorable pick between theirs, Cleveland's, and the Lakers', thanks to the Walker Kessler trade.
It is a shame that this didn't work out as much in Utah's favor as they would have liked. It would have been nice to have a valuable draft asset or two in their arsenal should another valuable player have hit the market.
At the same time, Mitchell's extension doesn't hurt them that much
Mitchell leaving Cleveland would have been awesome for Utah, but they weren't banking on that entirely. They still have a pretty awesome team as it currently stands, as the JJJ trade and the drafting of the electric Darryn Peterson all setting up Utah's future regardless of what happened with Mitchell.
Plus, there's a solid chance Cleveland is going to regret giving Mitchell that deal. It's not Mitchell that's not necessarily the problem. Well, there has been no data suggesting he can be the best player on a title team, but the rest of the Cavaliers' team has clearly indicated from the past few years that their core isn't strong enough to get them a title.
Now, that could change if Cleveland gets a third LeBron James stint (personal prediction: that's exactly what will happen), but even so, LeBron isn't what he used to be, Cleveland's window would only be for so long, and there's no telling what the fit would look like, as odd as that sounds.
And even if it does, again, it really shouldn't be that big of a problem for Utah. Despite this recent turn of bad luck, they built their own luck over the past few years from tanking and making the right trades. The Mitchell trade didn't go as well as the Jazz would have liked, but they were smart enough to know that they had other options besides counting on that.
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