Getty Donovan Mitchell of the Utah Jazz looks on against the Minnesota Timberwolves in the second quarter at Target Center.
With the recent decision by the New York Knicks to extend star wing, RJ Barrett, to a four-year, $120 million deal, in a sense they simultaneously threw a proverbial wrench into their reported pursuits of Donovan Mitchell.
It has been the worst-kept secret that the Knickerbockers have been extremely high on the idea of striking a deal with the Utah Jazz to bring their star guard to the Big Apple for the 2022-23 campaign and seemingly since word broke on July 12 that CEO Danny Ainge was willing to listen to offers for his franchise centerpiece, the two parties have been in consistent negotiation.
Easily one of the biggest updates pertaining to these trade talks came on August 23 when SNY’s Ian Begley reported that Utah has a “strong interest” in acquiring the 22-year-old Barrett should they wind up shipping Mitchell to New York.
Now, with the fourth-year wing’s newly established extension, seeing an exchange of these two players appears to have become far less likely.
In fact, on an August 31 episode of the podcast “Please Don’t Aggregate This,” host Jake Fischer noted that, based on what he’s heard from sources, the concept of seeing RJ Barrett shipped to Salt Lake City any time soon is a mere pipedream at this point.
“I think it is virtually impossible at this point, from conversations I’ve had today, that a Donovan deal gets done with RJ Barrett included,” Fischer said.
Fischer would later go on to state that though this extension may put a hold on any trade discussions, at the end of the day, the consensus opinion is that Donovan Mitchell will wind up heading to the Knicks at some point down the road.
“All that being said, though, everyone’s still kind of expecting Donovan Mitchell to end up in New York,“ Fischer said.
Future Talks ‘Not Dead’
As stated, the wing’s extension with New York may have complicated initial trade talks between Utah and Knicks, but by no means does it put a nail in the coffin of seeing a Donovan Mitchell deal be executed in the future.
Mere hours after the RJ Barrett reports surfaced, Sarah Todd of Deseret News went to Twitter to shed some insight that though there may be a hiccup in trade talks, there’s still a very real possibility that the two parties can come to terms on an eventual deal at some point in the future.
Though Barrett may have been highly coveted by the Jazz, the Knicks still have plenty of assets that could be of interest to Utah in a possible deal, with names like Obi Toppin, Immanuel Quickley, a reported team-favorite Quentin Favorite coupled along with a treasure-trove of assets likely all being on the table.
Mitchell Scrubs Utah Jazz From Twitter
Since the Knicks and Barrett agreed to terms on a new contract, Donovan Mitchell has gone about and made the bold decision to scrub the Utah Jazz from his Twitter bio.
Donovan Mitchell took “Utah Jazz Guard” out of his Twitter bio 👀
Considering the reports that Mitchell wants to play in his home state of New York and the fact that the most recent trade the Knicks offered Utah involved Barrett heading outbound many could interpret this move by the three-time All-Star as being rather pointed, and showing his disappointment that the Jazz wound up rejecting the package.
No matter which way one wishes to spin it, the timing of this edit is undoubtedly eye-catching.