Report: Donovan Mitchell to “stand pat,” not force trade from Utah

Good luck finding anyone around the league — outside the state of Utah, anyway — that thinks Donovan Mitchell will be a member of the Jazz a year from now.

But for now, despite the team making moves that suggest a rebuild is coming, the Jazz are shutting down teams that call asking about a Mitchell trade. Now comes word, via Brian Windhorst at ESPN, that Mitchell himself is not going to ask for a trade.

“On Mitchell’s side, he’s going to stand pat. He’s not going to force any action right now,” Windhorst said on ESPN’s Get Up.

ESPN’s Brian Windhorst reporting this morning that Donovan Mitchell plans to “stand pat” in Utah and is “not gonna force any action right now”pic.twitter.com/AponcFb4ay

— Tommy Beer (@TommyBeer) July 7, 2022

“Right now.” As in this could change down the line — maybe later this summer, maybe at the trade deadline, maybe after the All-Star Game in Salt Lake City next February.

It’s not reading the tea leaves to think the Jazz are leaning into a rebuild, their actions point the direction the franchise is headed. Rudy Gobert was traded to Minnesota for four first-round picks plus a first-rounder in the most recent draft, the kind of haul a rebuilding team needs. Royce O’Neal was traded to Brooklyn. The Jazz hired 34-year-old Will Hardey as their head coach. Plus, there is Danny Ainge’s history of blowing things up and starting from scratch.

Other teams see that and then lob a call to Ainge about Mitchell. Right now, Ainge is hanging up on those calls and giving lip service to retooling the roster around Mitchell, but even Mitchell was asking about those plans.

The Jazz, as currently constructed, are worse than the team that finished fifth in the West a season ago and was bounced by Dallas in the first