Donovan Mitchell Raises Questions on Utah Jazz Front Office After the Departures of Rudy Gobert and Royce O’Neale

Posted on by Jack Marks

The Utah Jazz partially destroyed their core last week when they traded Royce O’Neale to the Brooklyn Nets and Rudy Gobert to the Minnesota Timberwolves for a whopping haul. Donovan Mitchell was puzzled by these actions. After the Utah Jazz franchise traded away All-Star center Rudy Gobert and starting small forward Royce O’Neale last week, All-Star guard Donovan Mitchell allegedly expressed some anxiety.

The Jazz agreed to trade Gobert to the Minnesota Timberwolves for four first-round picks, three of which are unprotected, as well as Jarred Vanderbilt, Malik Beasley, Patrick Beverley, Leandro Bolmaro, and 2022 No. 22 overall pick Walker Kessler after sending O’Neale to the Brooklyn Nets for a 2023 first-round pick.

Utah Jazz
Credits: L’Equipe

Since joining the NBA as the No. 13 overall choice out of Louisville in 2017, Mitchell has been a rising talent. In each of his five seasons, he has improved, and during the last three seasons, he has earned All-Star honors.

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Donovan Mitchell asks Utah Jazz front office about their plans

ESPN NBA analyst Brian Windhorst claimed Wednesday on Brian Windhorst & The Hoop Collective that Mitchell basically questioned Jazz executives about what their strategy was after selling away two important players largely for draft selections. Windhorst stated that the strategy is to “do what’s right for the franchise” and that Danny Ainge, the Jazz’s CEO of basketball operations, believed the moves were in the team’s long-term best interests.

Windhorst continued by saying that even though the Jazz hasn’t formally placed Mitchell up for grabs, he thinks they have a price in mind and would be open to trading their franchise cornerstone if the deal was right. Mitchell himself turned to Twitter in the midst of all the speculations and wrote a somewhat mysterious remark.

In addition to a career-high 5.3 assists, 3.5 made three-pointers, and 1.5 steals a game, Mitchell averaged 25.9 points and 4.2 rebounds per game last year. He also made 35.5 percent of his 3-point attempts and shot 44.8 percent from the field overall.

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