It sounds as though the Utah Jazz are headed for a rebuild after recent reports suggested that the team is open to listening to trade offers for All-Star guard Donovan Mitchell. This comes after the franchise traded three-time Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert to the Minnesota Timberwolves for a haul of picks and young players.
Currently, the Jazz have engaged the New York Knicks in trade talks for Mitchell, who grew up in the New York area. The Knicks can offer a wealth of future draft picks and several young players that could entice the Jazz, but another team that has interest in the athletic guard is the Miami Heat. The Heat reportedly sent a trade offer to Utah for Mitchell before the team dealt Gobert, but that package was denied, per the Salt Lake Tribune. That deal was seen as “insufficient,” and the Jazz are now asking the Heat to include a third team in a potential trade if they want Mitchell, per Andy Larsen.
This is a similar situation to the Kevin Durant ordeal, where the Heat will also require a third, and potentially fourth team if they want to acquire the star. But unlike the Durant situation, this isn’t because of the Designated Rookie Rule, that stops you from trading for a player on a Designated Rookie deal while already having a player they acquired on such contract.
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This is likely because the Heat lack the draft capital necessary to pull off a deal. Miami only has two tradable first-round picks it could use to acquire Mitchell, and when you compare that to the up to eight first-round draft picks the Knicks can offer, any Heat offer on its own will pale in comparison to New York, and that’s before including any players.
If Miami wants to get in on the Mitchell sweepstakes, it will have to bring in another team with some more draft capital to pull off a trade. Or the Heat could try and acquire more assets through different trades in an effort to add to their own trade package, but that could get tricky. We’ll have to wait and see if Miami can create a better offer by bringing in another team, or if it makes other deals to acquire more assets. But for right now all reports suggest the Knicks are the frontrunners to land Mitchell.
