BarneyGumble wrote:TheLand13 wrote:MTJazzv3 wrote:
I dunno. Marrks is providing the Jazz about 80-85% of Mitchell's offense as a primary scorer and is a tick better than Mitchell on D (due to length, not effort) and clearly on a team-friendly contract. Throw in Sexton, (still might be a good rotation guard) and the FRPs, and I think its clear the long view is a Jazz W on that trade. Mitchell is having a great year, so kudos to him, but Markks is the new prototype to build around, (length and mad skills).
Like I said, it’s way too early to say. If Cleveland comes out of this with a championship in the next few years, they’re the automatic winners unless Utah gets one too (that’s a big if on Cleveland’s part though).
Now, with that said, who do I think is most likely going to be the long term winner? I’d put my money on Utah. Mitchell can play as well as he wants but none of it matters until Cleveland solves their wing issue, and that might not even happen this upcoming off season.
I was pretty clear in my comment that I was talking long term. Yes, short term (the window I spoke of which is this year and next year) the Cavs clearly "won" the trade and that is why they made it. They are contenders right now. But I can almost guarantee that Mitchell will have his foot out the door in 2 seasons from now. So you better win the title soon. Otherwise he is gone. Sorry, he's not staying in Cleveland no matter what he says, and the no defense chucker version of him will show up when he's ready to leave.
Assuming Lauri is still on the Jazz when this happens, at that point the Jazz will become the winners of this trade unless Cavs have won the title.
I was on my way to fully agreeing with you and then you fully threw logic right out the window. In fact there's a lot of things really wrong with this post.
Why is the idea of Mitchell staying in Cleveland so far fetched? Why are people having a hard time believing that? In what way is it a guarantee? I can remember a while back when people were throwing around that same idiotic narrative with Kevin Love when he was first traded to Cleveland. And keep in mind, this was a guy who took far more **** than Mitchell has so far, who has been treated like nothing short of a god during his time with Cleveland by both the fans and media. Yeah, Mitchell's said himself multiple times that he has really enjoyed being in Cleveland so far, and I think even at one point he said he's been happier here than in Utah.
So, yes, I'm going to throw out the very obvious question: what on earth makes you so confident that he's leaving the moment he gets the chance to do so? Because he's said that he wants to play in New York one day? So what? He's going to be 27 years old by the time his current contract expires. He's not going to be at the back end of his career... he can still sign another contract and leave after to go to New York. Unless he's made it clear that he wants to be there during his prime (and I can't find anything where he states this so to say sure is pure speculation), I'm not buying the narrative that he's bolting the first chance he gets.
And quite frankly, believing that he will in fact leave when his contract is up, at least right now, feels like a very stupid thing to believe. He's reunited with Ricky Rubio, who he has stated was his favorite teammate in Utah. He's on a team that has three very young and already incredibly talented players, two of whom have already been all stars. And as you mentioned before, they're title contenders already. That's not going to stop being a thing anytime soon. Mitchell wants to win. I'm willing to bet that he prioritizes that over playing in New York, which as I said is something he can very easily do later down the road. He's not an idiot and he recognizes that he lucked out into an incredible situation, and he knows they can continue to be legitimate contenders well beyond the two remaining years on his contract.
I'm not saying him leaving is out of the realm of possibility by any means. I am strongly questioning this narrative (that seems to have been created out of nothing) that Mitchell is leaving Cleveland the first chance he gets. There's nothing that has happened with him to suggest that's happening, so I can't help but think that you're pulling it out of your ass and expecting me to take it at face value. And that's simply not going to happen due to this thing I like to call critical thinking.
Now, with all that said, let's say for the sake of argument Mitchell does in fact intend to leave. The thing is, it's never going to get to that point. Cleveland will know well beforehand if he intends to stay or not, and they absolutely will trade him if they even get a hint that he plans to do so. This isn't like the LeBron James situation during both of his stints. Mitchell is not required for Cleveland to continue to be a top team in the East, let alone title contenders. They were one of the best teams in the East last year before injuries dicked them over. Cleveland won't have any issue trading away Mitchell for a multitude of key players, more than likely 3/D wings, to round out their roster and build around Garland/Mobley/Allen, two of whom have a chance of being top five players at their position at that point (you could already argue that Garland is, but I don't think he's at that point yet). You take Mitchell off this team and replace him with OG and throw in Trent JR (and make no mistake about it, they're definitely getting those kinds of players in a trade), they're a top team in the East pretty easily. All they really need is another floor spreader to unlock their offense, and good luck to any NBA teams in the future if Mobley develops a consistent three point shot.
So... my point in all of this rambling? I'm not really worried about what Mitchell decides to do. Even though there is literally nothing to suggest that him leaving is a foregone conclusion like you claim it is, it's not the end of the world if he does. We're going to trade him if he isn't staying and we're going to get back great assets for it. I and many others have stated it multiple times, Cleveland's future success will still depend entirely around the development of Evan Mobley. He is the future of this franchise, not Mitchell, regardless of whether or not he stays.
