Raptors: Rumored Donovan Mitchell asking price is too expensive

The Toronto Raptors may need to look elsewhere for offseason upgrades now that the trade market for Kevin Durant appears to have slowed to a crawl. Donovan Mitchell might make sense for Toronto, especially considering that the Utah Jazz are moving towards a rebuild.

While the Raptors don’t have a pressing need to acquire Mitchell, he would instantly be some the leader of their backcourt if he came to Toronto. With a scoring intuition that you just can’t teach, it makes sense as to why every team with cap space is calling Utah about a Mitchell trade.

However, Toronto is not going to gut themselves in exchange for a player like Mitchell. If the latest rumblings about the trade situation are to be believed, it seems very unlikely that the Raptors will have the capacity to acquire a player that is in such a rarified territory.

According to Marc Stein on Spotify Live, the Jazz will need four or five draft picks in exchange for Mitchell’s services. Considering the fact that such an excessive number of picks is around what the Nets have been seeking for Durant, Toronto may be better off leaving this trade alone.

Donovan Mitchell is too expensive for the Toronto Raptors.

No one doubts Mitchell’s quality as a player. Fresh off averaging nearly 26 points per game and having scored at least 20 per game every season since he’s been in the NBA, Mitchell is one of the best young scorers in the league. The idea of trading for him, however, is becoming unrealistic.

The Rudy Gobert trade, in which Utah received 2022 first-rounder Walker Kessler in addition to four first-round picks, likely threw the trade market out of which. Though Toronto has all of their original draft picks, they lack the surplus of assets needed to send to Utah in exchange for Mitchell.

Keep in mind that players like OG Anunoby and Gary Trent Jr. would also need to be sent to Utah along with all those draft picks. To put it quite simply, Mitchell is far too expensive for the Raptors at this point in time. Let’s just hope he doesn’t end up in the division on the Knicks.

Mitchell is a potential game-changer if he is utilized properly, but the Raptors simply lack the assets needed to bring him to Toronto and surround him with quality players. Whatever chance Raptors fans may have thought they had at Mitchell has apparently evaporated into mist.