Let’s address the elephant in the room: Yeah, the Donovan Mitchell contract saga is and will be a little awkward.
Mitchell has two more guaranteed years on his deal with a player option in 2025/2026. He can be a free agent as early as two years’ time and the window to trade Mitchell to recoup value is next year. So, the fork in the road is quickly approaching.
The discussion of a star player leaving Cleveland for greener pastures isn’t a new one. Cavs fans were ever used to it during the first LeBron James tenure and became more accepting of such discussions during his return.
Guardians fans known it’s a formality once a homegrown player reaches a certain level of stardom that it’s only a matter of time until a prospect haul is returned to start the cycle over again.
What makes things more difficult in these scenarios is the Cleveland fandom psyche -- resilient yet delicate. Taking abuse from national media over the years for simply being Cleveland, as well as abuse from the city’s franchises on their roller coasters of success.
The discussion of a star player leaving Cleveland is a bit more sensitive here than in some other markets. A star leaving Cleveland is not only a lost asset but also another feather in the cap for all those who say, “Why Cleveland?” It means more in Cleveland, but it also hurts more.
The Cleveland market is not one to draw talent. It can’t easily recover a lost asset the size and stature of a Mitchell. They aren’t a Brooklyn team that can trade away all their draft picks, have a limited future and yet still be on trade demand short list for a Mitchell or Damian Lillard. The process to recover is arduous, and painful, and requires a bit of luck, which Koby Altman has seemed to capture in the post-LeBron era.
Cleveland has never truly been committed to, and the trauma from the LeBron years is always there. All those on the outside are always trying to find a way for those on the inside to escape.
Cleveland wasn’t a destination for Mitchell, much in the same way Milwaukee wasn’t a destination for Lillard. But when the team the player wanted overplayed their hand, a small market team took advantage of a rare opportunity to acquire a star they likely wouldn’t have had the chance to acquire otherwise.
Lillard, like Mitchell, is one of the good stewards of the NBA. And while neither player had their current end destination in mind when they started their trade journey, both have accepted it and tried to make the best out of it. It doesn’t hurt when you have Giannis on one end of Mobley and Garland on the other.
Where they diverge is Lillard is on the backend of his career with three more guaranteed years and a player option that is a virtual lock to be picked up. The extension he signed with Portland last year is likely to be the last large deal he’ll ever sign. With Mitchell, the next contract he signs is likely to be one of the largest of his career both in financial and on-court significance.
While Cleveland may not have been an end destination for Mitchell, let’s not forget where things stood one year ago.
“When (Mitchell) found out that (Evan) Mobley, Jarrett Allen and Darius Garland were not in the trade and neither was Kevin Love, he went screaming around the golf course (because) he was so excited,” Windhorst said.
The NFL is affectionately known as “Not For Long” because of how quickly things change. With the NBA, especially in the era of player empowerment, it is rapidly joining the ranks.
One year ago, national reports proliferated on how excited Mitchell was to join the Cavs despite requesting, and expecting, a trade to his hometown New York Knicks.
Now, one year and a playoff series to boot, you have what many see as an inevitable ending. A successful season but a disappointing playoff loss to those hometown Knicks have people feeling nervous vibes instead of ‘immaculate vibes’.
If the Mitchell contract is the elephant in the room, fans should take solace in the Cavs controlling the elephant in the room. Let me explain.
Winning changes everything. The reason why Mitchell wanted to leave Utah was because the team had run its course after only advancing past the first round once in four playoff appearances. The desire to go to New York was a byproduct of the lack of playoff success in Utah, not because Mitchell simply wanted to return home. Mitchell wanted to win and didn’t see a pathway forward to do that in Utah any longer.
Winning is also the reason why the Mitchell rumors crept back up this offseason. Just as much as the pendulum swung to the other side with the Cavs loss to the Knicks, it would likely have swung just as much the Cavs way had they finished the Knicks off in similar fashion in how their season was ended.
For most cases, change becomes a possibility when the present situation has reached its limits. Lillard didn’t want to leave Portland but the present situation had a ceiling on its competitiveness for the last few good years of his career. Until the Cavs prove their ability to change status quo on what this team can be within the context of the Eastern Conference, those questions with Mitchell will continue to be floated.
But win and have a strong playoff showing, and it puts the Cavs on a different track with Mitchell extension discussions. He may have his thoughts already, but the Cavs control their destiny if they win and make it hard for him to leave.
The other factor working in Cleveland’s favor is money. Or as Giannis put it on media day, “Money isn’t important, but a lot of money is important.”
The Bucks are on a similar parallel with Giannis’s contract talks as the Cavs are with Mitchell. Both players could sign extensions this year but financially it makes zero sense. More money and more years are available by waiting until next off-season to extend. Just like Giannis made it known at Bucks Media Day of that fact, so did Mitchell:
If the Cavs chose to keep Mitchell for the next two years and go the free agent route, the Cavs bird rights would enable them to pay him substantially more than any other team in free agency could. Turning down the Cavs would mean Mitchell sacrificing significant contractual value.
But, that may not matter in the end. Mitchell may be willing to sacrifice contractual value for off-court value by playing in a bigger market, and being closer to home. And if that’s the case, that’s okay. If being home is what he values most, then there’s not likely anything the Cavs could have done to keep him. The same way the Cavs benefitted by having a generational talent born in their backyard, could prove to be just as equally damaging in this case.
If that happens, it doesn’t make the decision to trade for Mitchell any less of the right move. Such limited opportunities exist for small-market teams to acquire significant stars in their prime on long-term contracts that when the opportunity presents itself it’s an understandable risk to take.
If that risk doesn’t pay off, it doesn’t mean all value will be lost. Given Miami, Brooklyn and New York were on Mitchell’s trade list last year, Cavs fans will likely rejoice *tongue in cheek* in having RJ Barrett versus Tyler Herro trade package debates. And last I checked, Jarrett Allen, Darius Garland and Evan Mobley are still on this team.
All these discussions will persist but will be decided by what happens on the court. If the Cavs are the Cavs fans think and hope they are, this should resolve itself. If the Cavs is the Cavs, then they only have themselves to blame.
It’s not quite Paul Dolan’s “enjoy him” but let the season play out and the rest will take care of itself.
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