Contrary to reports and assumptions, the Utah Jazz did not make their trade with the Cleveland Cavaliers out of spite.
Donovan Mitchell is a Cleveland Cavalier and there are some still having a tough time coming to terms with that. Despite the outrageous claims from Ric Bucher, Zach Lowe was able to clarify why Mitchell is in Cleveland and it does not involve a spite driven trade.
Lowe stated on “The Lowe Post” that the Jazz were not making decisions based on events from months ago. Again, this makes the claims of Bucher complete nonsense. Ultimately what this is wanting to see a big star in New York, because Knicks, and not being able to realize that a different team could provide a viable option.
The big sticking point aside from the perception of Collin Sexton, Lauri Markannen, and Ochai Agbaji is the value of the unprotected draft picks sent to Utah from Cleveland. Sure, it is more likely that the Knicks picks will be higher than the Cavs picks in the future, this is a near certainty. The other way to look at this, the way that when trades of this manner are made is the importance placed on volume. The Cavaliers offered three picks while the Knicks offered just two. Volume could have been enough of a tipping point that resulted in Utah accepting the offer to send Mitchell to Cleveland.
The unfortunate thing about all of this discourse is yet again the viewpoint from the national scale is that being traded to Cleveland is a punishment. That the only way a team could execute a trade to send a quality player to Cleveland is out of spite or make them pay. In the end would a player rather play with Darius Garland, Evan Mobley, and Jarrett Allen or be traded to the Cleveland Browns of the NBA, the New York Knicks, and be added to the seemingly never-ending list of dysfunction that takes place year-after-year at Madison Square Garden. The choice is simple (not that he had one), play with and actual promising foundation of players that will not be under constant media scrutiny if they are unable to achieve otherworldly, lofty, and extremely unrealistic expectations for a franchise that continues to be a circus without anything to show for it on the court for entirely too long.
