It's still way too soon to call the Donovan Mitchell trade the "Best" in franchise history

The Utah Jazz looked like they remade their entire roster with the Donvanon Mitchell trade. The Jazz sent Mitchell to the Cleveland Cavaliers for Lauri Markkanenm, Collin Sexton, Ochai Agbaji, and a smattering of first-round draft picks and pick swaps. The move looked like a massive haul in return for Mitchell, and the Jazz seemed to have won the trade.

After all, Markkanen turned into an All-Star in 2022-2023, and the Jazz got a host of draft picks that should fortify them for the future. Not to mention that Sexton has since returned to form and Agbaji was one of the better defenders on the team. They looked like the perfect foundation for the team.

So much so that SLC Dunk has gone out of their way to call it the best trade in Jazz history, but is that the case? It may be as March of 2024 comes to a close, but there are a lot of factors to consider. Namely, they've already traded away Agabji for a middle-of-the-draft pick, and the Cavs are screaming into the top part of the Eastern Conference.

If the Cavs end up winning a title, then that recontextualizes the entire trade, and it gets even murkier to say the Jazz won the trade, let alone made the right move, if the Jazz keeps trading away the assets they got for Mitchell. It may seem like the right move to trade Markkanen and Sexton for draft picks, but it's not always that simple.

The NBA community overvalues draft picks, as there's no guarantee that any player, taken first or 31st, will ever develop into a good player. Risking established names for potential is a surefire way to get fired, and doing so when you already have a host of draft picks coming is even more short-sighted.

The Jazz right now are in a good place, but if they keep trading players that they got in the Mitchell deal, and then can't develop the players they draft, a stable of Danny Ainge-led teams, then the trade could easily be seen as one of the worst in not only franchise history but NBA history.

So let's not be so quick to talk about how good this trade is historically when we're still watching history unfold.