About two years ago, the Cleveland Cavaliers acquired Donovan Mitchell in a blockbuster trade with the Utah Jazz.
The Cavaliers sent Lauri Markkanen, Collin Sexton, Ochai Agbaji and two first-round picks to the Jazz in exchange for Mitchell. The two sides also agreed to three first-round pick swaps.
While the early returns on the deal have been solid for Cleveland, with Mitchell leading the Cavs to back-to-back playoff appearances while earning All-Star appearances in each of his first two campaigns with the team, Bleacher Report’s NBA Team revealed some concerns about trade.
While Bleacher Report gave the Cavaliers a decent B+ grade for the deal, it also expressed some concerns about the potential risk.
Specifically, the staff is wondering whether the Mitchell-Darius Garland duo will ever truly sync up and whether or not Cleveland’s “top four” will mesh in the long run.
Bleacher Report added that the Cavs have “plenty of time to figure it out,” but qualified the statement by saying management may have to alter the roster with more trades.
Of course, it doesn’t help that Markkanen became a bona fide All-Star with the Jazz after posting disappointing results in his lone season with the Cavaliers.
There’s no doubt there’s some risk here for Cleveland, but sometimes you have to take those risks to reach the next level.
Additionally, in hindsight, we can see that Markkanen only averaged 14.8 points per game on 44.5/35.8/86.8 shooting with the Cavs in 2021-22. It was also his fifth NBA season, so it was starting to look like he was never going to really break out. The fact that he ultimately became a star in Utah isn’t something you can really fault the Cavaliers for.
Cleveland should be a playoff team for the next few years, but if the Cavs continue to fail to make a deep playoff run, then maybe they need to start thinking about a significant change.
