After reporting on The Hoop Collective (video link) earlier this week that Donovan Mitchell inquired about the Jazzof the plan following the professions of the team Rudy Gobert and Royce O’NealeBrian Windhorst said during an appearance on ESPN’s Get Up on Thursday that the star keeper wouldn’t be about to ask for a trade (video link).
“After the Gobert trade, it was thought that Mitchell might be next, and maybe at some point he will be,” said Windhorst. “But right now the Jazz are telling people they have no intention of trading him, and on Mitchell’s side, he’s going to stay put. It will not force any action at this time.
Reports at the time of Gobert’s trade indicated the Jazz were planning to revamp their roster around Mitchell, while later reports suggested teams still believed the 25-year-old could be had for the right price. If Mitchell expresses no desire to leave Utah, it seems highly unlikely that the Jazz will move him this offseason.
Here are some additional rumors about trade and free agency throughout the NBA:
- Although ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski still believes that a Kevin Durant trade is likely to happen, he said during an appearance on NBA Today (video link) that it’s “absolutely” possible the former MVP could end up staying with the Nets in the fall. “Brooklyn, they don’t have to accept a deal they don’t want to make. They don’t have to convince themselves of a deal,” said Wojnarowski. “At the same time, Kevin Durant, looking at the situation, could he look at it differently over time? It is certainly a possibility. Wojnarowski explained that he thinks Durant might have second thoughts about his trade request if his potential new team were to clear their roster to trade for him.
- During an appearance on ESPN’s Get Up Thursday (video link), Windhorst said the Durant draw may not be creating the frenzy the Nets had hoped for. “When the Nets put it on the market, I think they thought there was going to be a huge bidding war,” said Windhorst. “And while there’s a lot of interest, from what I can tell the bidding war isn’t really hot right now. Teams have made their bids and they don’t really feel the need to increase them.
- According to Windhorst, the feedback Utah received in the trade from Gobert complicated Durant’s negotiations: “The Nets responded (to the Gobert trade) by saying, ‘Durant’s price just went up,’ and the rest of the league is sort of saying, ‘We don’t think so. We don’t want to pay that price. We didn’t like this business.” Windhorst acknowledged talks could intensify when team executives meet in Las Vegas for the Summer League starting this week.
- John Gambadoro of Arizona Sports 98.7 (Twitter link) believes that we can see measurements on the Deandre Ayton front before the end of the week, adding that he had heard “rumblings” about the possibility of the Pacers sign the suns‘ free agent center restricted to an offer sheet.
