What the Rudy Gobert trade netted the Jazz was the foundation of a rebuild — four first-round picks plus young players in Walker Kessler and Jarred Vanderbilt.
Sure, there were a couple of solid veterans coming back to Utah in Malik Beasley and Patrick Beverley, but this trade didn’t make the Jazz better today, it set them up for tomorrow.
Which has teams expecting a Donovan Mitchell trade to be the next domino. The Jazz are shooting that idea down, insisting they will rebuild around Mitchell, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski said on the network this weekend (hat tip Clutch Points). "They have shut down any team who's called about trying to trade for Donovan Mitchell.
The Jazz are committed to moving forward with him as their cornerstone player."@wojespn on the Utah Jazz's plans with Donovan Mitchellpic.twitter.com/OqPPan8bYy — ClutchPoints (@ClutchPointsApp) July 3, 2022 The catch-22 for Utah: That’s exactly what you’d say publicly to gain leverage and drive up the price if they were going to trade him.