BREAKING: Donovan Mitchell Reveals How He Found Out He Got Traded
Wednesday marks a great day for fans of the Cleveland Cavaliers.
The franchise has introduced three-time NBA All-Star Donovan Mitchell to the media.
He was acquired from the Utah Jazz in a blockbuster deal over the offseason, and he is the best player to join the franchise since LeBron James left in 2018.
The 26-year-old has never missed the NBA Playoffs in all five of the seasons that he has been in the league.
During the press conference, Mitchell revealed where he was when he found out he had been traded.
"When I first found out, I was golfing," Mitchell said. "So that report is true, I was golfing. I was running around, crazy, mainly in fact, when I figured out who we kept in the deal. I didn't know who was in the trade. I just knew I was traded.
The Cavs traded away Lauri Markkanen, Collin Sexton, Ochai Agbaji and draft-picks (and swaps) to get Mitchell.
Sexton only played in 11 games last season and Agbaji was the 14th overall pick in the 2022 NBA Draft (so he was not on the team last season).
The only key player they moved was Markkanen, who averaged 14.8 points, 5.7 rebounds and 1.2 assists per contest in 61 games last season.
He is a good player, but Mitchell is much better.
The team has two All-Stars (22-year-old Darius Garland and 24-year-old Jarrett Allen), so with Mitchell, they now have three players that made the 2022 NBA All-Star Game.
They went 44-38 and finished as the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference, but they lost to the Brooklyn Nets and Atlanta Hawks in the play-in tournament.
Therefore, they missed the postseason.
That being said, with Mitchell, they should be expected to be a top-six seed in the Eastern Conference in 2023.
Mitchell averaged 25.9 points, 4.2 rebounds and 5.3 assists per contest in 67 regular season games last season.