6 players who turned their backs on the Utah Jazz

5. Donovan Mitchell

The betrayal of Donovan Mitchell isn't so much about the Utah Jazz as a franchise, or even his falling out with former teammate Rudy Gobert, but more about his desire to play elsewhere. Mostly likely closer to home in New York. Mitchell, right now, is a member of the Cleveland Cavaliers, having been sent there in the summer of 2022 in exchange for Collin Sexton, Lauri Markkanen, Ochai Agbaji, and a bunch of first-round draft picks.

Mitchell abruptly ended a string of playoff success that many thought was only going to get better, and had the Jazz made the Gobert trade, and somehow still landed Lauri Markkanen, it likely would've been better than ever with a starting five of Mike Conley, Donovan Mitchell, Bogdan Bogdanovic, Markkanen and then-rookie Walker Kessler. The Jazz superstar opted to not see what the franchise could do about reloading the roster for another deep run after a Gobert trade and made it clear he wasn't going to stick around once his deal was up.

So a trade had to be made. Mitchell's arrival in Cleveland has gone well, mostly and the Jazz have mostly been a team of two minds ever since his departure, with no end in sight for this half-hearted "reload". It wasn't one of the uglier splits, but the split did cause the downfall of the team and ended its playoff hopes, so he makes the list for that reason.