Donovan Mitchell, the New York Knick??

If you have dreaded the idea of Donovan Mitchell becoming a New York Knick, I supposed you log out of twitter, turn off the TV, and disconnect from all sorts of online media. It’s coming. Might be today, might be tomorrow, in a month, or even at the trade deadline next February. But it’s coming. The inevitable has already begun.

Just a week ago, news broke that Donovan Mitchell was going to “stand pat” and not request a trade. Like many, I took this news as the possibility of Donovan sticking around in Utah, and least for a little longer. But it seems that was all just a ploy from the Jazz front office to drive up Donovan’s trade value, making it seem as if to trade for him was going to cost A LOT. And hell, it might have actually worked.

Last night the Donovan Mitchell trade hype train gained much more momentum, with legitimate reporting that the Jazz and New York Knicks had started trade talks and negotiations to send Mitchell to New York.

The Jazz and Knicks have begun discussions on a potential trade to send three-time NBA All-Star Donovan Mitchell to New York, sources tell The Athletic.

The Jazz are having conversations with multiple teams on a Mitchell deal, but the Knicks have emerged as the focused destination over the past several days, sources said. Both sides have discussed a deal framework in the past 24 hours, those sources said.

Shams and Tony Jones reported that there are several teams interested in Mitchell, but the Knicks, having eight future first-round picks and a stockfile of young talent, possess the best assets to actually pull a trade off that the Jazz might be interested in.

NEW YORK. Donovan’s home town. The place that has been connected to Donovan since his breakout rookie year. For me personally, I have always felt that Donovan going to New York was inevitable. Every time he played in Madison Square Garden, you could just feel his connection to that place. And he always seemed to absolutely ball out when he was there.

It’s going to be one of those days where every notification that pops up on your phone is a potential blockbuster trade sending away Donovan Mitchell. Not gonna lie, my heart kinda broke a little bit typing that last sentence. Donovan has been unlike any player that the Jazz have ever had. The magical rookie year, dunk contest, the All-Stars, the smack-talk, 50-point playoff games, shoe deals, speaking out on social issues, Black Lives Matter, Breonna Taylor, beefing with Utah senators, giving away his shoes to kids at the games, THERE’S JUST SO MUCH. I’ll save the Donovan Mitchell tribute for when he’s actually gone, but this dude has just done so much good stuff in his 5 years in Utah. Seeing him traded away will be very difficult.

The Utah Jazz rebuild is already underway. It was under way when they traded Joe Ingles during the regular season. It got a big boost when they traded Rudy Gobert two weeks ago. Trading Donovan Mitchell and adding to their stockpile of draft picks will initiate the biggest rebuild AKA TANK that we have ever seen as Jazz fans. I have no idea what to expect, but here we go.

Also, this lmao.