Cavs Mitchell Shows Nets What They’re Missing

The difference between the Nets and the Cavs in Wednesday night’s opener at Barclays Center was all too obvious. Cleveland boasts a true superstar in guard Donovan Mitchell who can take over games in crunch time…and Brooklyn doesn’t. Mitchell scored Cleveland’s last five points, including the game-winning three-pointer with 12.7 seconds remaining, to lift his club to a 114-113 victory.

Meanwhile, the Nets could barely get off a shot after taking a six-point lead with 1:24 remaining. Their only points came when Mitchell was called for a foul while diving after a loose ball and Mikal Bridges hit a pair of free throws. Strangely, Brooklyn guard Cam Thomas played only 3:57 of the final frame despite scoring 36 points, the most ever by a reserve in NBA history. The Nets also played the last three minutes without a true point guard to help them get into an offense.

On the Nets’ final possession, Head Coach Jacque Vaughn drew up a play for Bridges, but the Cavs blew it up. After the refs failed to acknowledge Vaughn’s timeout plea, Thomas’ desperation heave and Cam Johnson’s follow weren’t close.

There’s no question as to who will get the ball when the Cavs need a bucket. Mitchell started the rally with a smooth pull-up after creating space to get the shot over Nets center Nic Claxton. About 30 seconds later, Mitchell squeezed in between a pair of Nets executing a dribble handoff and then took off with the ball for a breakaway layup that tied the game at 111-111. His dagger 3 was just another isolation, this time against Johnson.

If you got the sense that you had seen this act before, you have. This game was eerily reminiscent of one last season during which Mitchell ignited a late Cavs comeback with five points and a rebound of his own missed free throw in the last 45 seconds to help break Brooklyn’s hearts.

Now that Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, and James Harden are merely a short-lived memory, the Nets need that level of a closer before anyone can take them seriously again. As fine a player as Bridges is—on what for him was an off night, he still managed to score 20 points on 50% field goal shooting—he might not ever be that guy. The Cavs were able to take him out when they needed it with typical NBA physicality. If only the Nets could get someone like Mitchell, a four-time NBA All-Star, to take that load off him.

Could they?

Just wildly speculating here (because dwelling more on a terrible Nets loss that could easily become a recurring theme for this season isn’t good for my health), but now that the NBA’s new Collective Bargaining Agreement altered the league trade rules related to players on designated rookie contract extensions, it’s possible for Brooklyn to acquire Mitchell, a native New Yorker with rumored desires to one day play at home, without first having to deal with the anvil that is the two years remaining on Ben Simmons’ max contract.  

Of course, Mitchell would first have to request, in a non-public manner, a trade specifically to Brooklyn, which Cleveland is entitled to ignore since Mitchell is signed for next season as well, with 2025-26 a player option. With the Cavs expected to be in the hunt for a top-three seed in the Eastern Conference this season, I would put the odds of such a fortuitous confluence of events as remote.

But let’s play along anyway. Assume Mitchell asks out, telling the Cavs he wants to team up with his alleged good friend Bridges. What would it take to make Cleveland happy in a trade?

Unfortunately, I don’t think the Nets have it, because I suspect that Cleveland isn’t interested in bottoming out. Hence, a third team could help here. One that holds a longer-term view. Like Portland.

So, how about this?

Nets get: Donovan Mitchell

Cavs get: Jerami Grant-*, 2027 Nets first round pick (swapped with Rockets). 2028 Nets first round pick (higher of Nets or Suns), 2026 Nets second-round pick

Blazers get: Spencer Dinwiddie, Royce O’Neale, 2025 Nets first-round pick (swapped with Rockets), 2028 Nets second-round pick

*--ineligible to be traded until after January 15.  

The salary cap math works, but I might be letting the Nets off the hook here in terms of picks required to make this happen. Only a year ago, it took three 1s, 2 first-round pick swaps, and three players, one of whom (Lauri Markkanen) turned into an All-Star, for Utah to acquiesce to dealing Mitchell to the Cavs in the first place. However, times, namely the new CBA, change. Milwaukee was able to limit their draft pick compensation for Portland star guard Damian Lillard last month to a single 1 plus a pair of pick swaps. Sure, they also included All-Star guard Jrue Holiday in the package, but the word is that teams are now generally more protective of their picks.

Still, Cleveland would not only get two of their 1s back, they’d also net a 20 ppg scorer at a position of need and a scoring guard off the bench for when Caris LeVert gets promoted (I’m told the Cavs’ staff is very high on the former Net). Portland, meanwhile, would get two picks plus expiring contracts they could then flip for more assets to put themselves in better tanking position.

Why is this preferable to the Lillard opportunity that I was happy to hear the Nets passed on? Unlike Lillard, Mitchell, 27, is a better fit with the timeline of Brooklyn’s core. Though Lillard is the superior pure shooter and playmaker, I like how Mitchell plays bigger than his listed 6-foot 3 frame, which is important in Brooklyn’s defensive schemes. A three-level scorer, he’s already used to sharing the halfcourt offense with two non-shooters in Cleveland big men Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley. Should the Nets keep playing Simmons and Claxton together, you wouldn’t think it would throw off Mitchell’s game.

Mitchell is exactly the type of player who could alter Brooklyn’s bleak (from my point of view) outlook for this season. Too bad it’s probably a pipe dream.