CLEVELAND, Ohio — In the NBA’s summer doldrums, ESPN dropped a bombshell hypothetical trade proposal that has Cleveland fans imagining what could be.
Trading Donovan Mitchell for the potential 2025 No. 1 overall pick, likely Cooper Flagg. While the Mavericks have reportedly stated they wouldn’t trade the pick, the mere concept raises profound questions about the Cavs’ future direction.
The debate centers on a fundamental NBA team-building dilemma: championship now or dynasty later?
Chris Fedor, cleveland.com Cavaliers insider, delved into the conundrum, even potential internal conflict such a move would create: “It is fascinating to me because Cavs have so many different people in their front office, but they do have somebody who’s responsible for kind of looking toward the future. He’s their strategy guy, he’s their long-term planning guy and I think he would love this.
“...The long term for the Cavs with Cooper Flag and Evan Mobley together. And like, what you think the future is, it’s kind of the mystery box.”
The defensive potential of a Flagg-Mobley frontcourt is breathtaking.
Jimmy Watkins, columnist for cleveland.com, painted the picture: “Evan Mobley and Cooper Flag as a defensive tandem. You think Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen are good? My goodness. Those are two guys that can guard every single position on the floor.”
But championship windows in the NBA are notoriously unpredictable.
The Cavs currently stand as the third-best team in championship odds for next season. That’s rarefied air, the product of years of rebuilding and calculated moves.
Koby Altman, president of basketball operations, has explicitly stated Cleveland’s current mission: “I’d rather be where we are now, trying to figure it out being one of those elite eight teams. ... \[Knowing\] we can come back with that strong group again. This is where we want to live, right? With the expectation of championship and when we fall short of that, everyone’s upset. I want to live in that space.”
Mitchell’s value transcends statistics. He provides leadership, stability, and playoff-tested production – qualities that promising prospects like Flagg simply cannot guarantee, regardless of their ceiling.
“When you’re competing for a championship, you need a guy like Donovan Mitchell,” Fedor explained. “If you don’t have a guy like Donovan Mitchell, you lose leadership, you lose maturity, you lose stability, you lose your alpha.”
The Cavaliers’ front office must also consider their timeline. NBA executives and coaches rarely get unlimited runway to build slowly.
“If you’re somebody who’s chasing a championship and you don’t know if you’re going to be around to see this thing through, because coaches change all the time,” Fedor noted. “Front office executives, they change all the time. ... You’re probably saying, let’s try and take our chances with Donovan Mitchell.”
Ultimately, this thought exercise reveals more about the Cavaliers’ identity than any real trade possibility.
Cleveland has positioned itself as a championship contender after years of rebuilding, with Mitchell as their offensive alpha and Mobley as their defensive cornerstone.
The mystery box of Cooper Flagg might be tantalizing, but in the high-stakes game of NBA team building, sometimes the known quantity – especially one with Mitchell’s playoff pedigree – is the more prudent choice for a franchise in its championship window.
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_Note: Artificial intelligence was used to help generate this story from the Cleveland Wine and Gold Talk Podcast by cleveland.com. Visitors to cleveland.com have asked for more text stories based on website podcast discussions._