Why the Cavs shouldn't trade Donovan Mitchell

The NBA thrives on overreactions. 

Fans make declarations about "legacies" and cry "overrated" at players or teams who don't live up to expectations on a random Tuesday night in February. But the histrionics don't just come from fans. Front offices have a propensity to overreact, too, firing coaches or trading stars after just one or two underwhelming seasons. Sometimes, those moves make sense. Sometimes they leave us scratching our heads. A Donovan Mitchell trade would fall into the latter category. 

Cleveland traded for Mitchell about 15 months ago, just prior to the 2022-23 season. Since then, the team has a 56-34 record with him in the lineup - but a first-round exit last season, a relatively slow start this season and injuries to both Darius Garland and Evan Mobley have culminated in deafening trade chatter surrounding Mitchell, a four-time All-Star. But a Mitchell trade would be a silly overreaction from the Cavs front office.

Does this roster have a ceiling on what it can accomplish in the postseason? Potentially. The starting lineup consists of two small guards in Garland and Mitchell, plus two huge frontcourt pieces in Mobley and Jarrett Allen. All four of them are good (possibly great) players, but come playoff time, questions about that lineup's versatility will rise like they did last year when Cleveland fell to New York in five games. Allen averaged just 9.4 points and 7.4 rebounds in that series, Mobley just 9.8 points.

But moving on from Mitchell after just one full season would be an incredibly quick surrender for Cleveland, which traded three first-round picks and now All-Star level player Lauri Markkanen to get Mitchell in the first place. According to Jake Fisher of Yahoo Sports, Cleveland might not be ready to move on from any of its top players. 

"Cleveland officials have maintained a commitment to this core of four All-Star talents, according to league sources, even with all the incessant chatter among rival executives that Mitchell will inevitably bolt when he can reach the unrestricted market in 2025," Fisher writes. 

That won't stop the rumors from circulating, and they will just get louder as we trudge toward the NBA trade deadline on Feb. 8. 

The Cavs are a good basketball team. If they want to be a great, truly competitive team, a trade might be necessary - but it'll also be complicated. Because making trades to bolster the roster and building a more complete, balanced team around Mitchell is a more realistic (and probably faster) path to high-level success. But while this team has plenty of players it can use to create an intriguing trade package and still keep its star, receiving adequate value back for those guys is where things get tricky.

Jarrett Allen, Caris LeVert, Max Strus and Evan Mobley would all be sought-after players on the trade market if Cleveland is willing to part with any of them. But teams hoping to add talent aren't often willing to part with equal talent, and Cleveland has no use for collecting draft picks right now when the team is obviously trying to win, and win soon. 

Thus, Cleveland is left in a tough spot. Trading Mitchell would be abandoning ship for Cleveland, and that is simply not the answer right now. But the other options - staying put and hoping this current roster is good enough to compete or trading Allen or Mobley - are both risky propositions. 

Does Cleveland believe in this roster to make a deep playoff run? That's not a crazy belief, really. This is a flawed roster, but a highly talented one nonetheless. If that's the route Cleveland elects to take and suffers another quick playoff exit, then tough decisions will have to be made. Even so, trading Mitchell this season would nullify any chances of postseason success for Cleveland. It would be a metaphorical wave of the white flag, giving up on a version of the Cavs that has only been together a very short time. The answer for Cleveland might not be crystal clear - but we can confidently say that a Mitchell trade will not benefit the Cavs in any meaningful way.