After a weeks-long stalemate between the Utah Jazz and New York Knicks, the Cleveland Cavaliers came off the top rope to snag Donovan Mitchell in a blockbuster trade.

ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reported the deal Thursday.

As part of the deal, Collin Sexton is reportedly signing a four-year, $72 million contract, per Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium. Ochai Agbaji is about to start his rookie deal, while Lauri Markkanen is under contract through 2024-25.

NBA

Collin Sexton agrees to 4-year, $72 million deal with Utah as part of Donovan Mitchell trade

This deal is all about the picks, though. According to Wojnarowski, the Cavs are sending unprotected first-rounders in 2025, 2027 and 2029 as well as first-round pick swaps in 2026 and 2028.

In concert with the Rudy Gobert trade that Utah made earlier this summer, the Jazz now have one of the league's most intriguing rebuild starter kits.

With so many picks involved, there will be no way to know who won this deal for a few years. Mitchell might continue his overtures to the Knicks before this contract is over. There's no guarantee that any of these picks will yield a player of Mitchell's caliber, either.

But even as the dust is still settling, we can make some early calls on who we think won and lost this trade.

 

Winner: Cleveland Cavaliers

This is a huge price to pay for Donovan Mitchell, a top-20 to -25-ish player who's often looked uninterested in defense over the last few seasons. There's no getting around that.

But the Cavs, like the Minnesota Timberwolves with Rudy Gobert before them, were uniquely positioned to pay that price.

With two All-Stars (Jarrett Allen and Darius Garland) and a likely future All-Star (Evan Mobley) all under the age of 25, there's an argument that Cleveland doesn't need another star through the draft. There's plenty of young talent already in place, and the Cavs now have another guard on the same developmental timeline who has a career playoff scoring average of 28.3 points.

Along with Garland, Cleveland now has one of the NBA's most dynamic offensive backcourts. And if there's one frontcourt that would seem equipped to cover for the potential defensive deficiencies of those two, it may be Mobley and Allen.

With those four alone, the Cavaliers feel like a borderline lock for the playoffs. A supporting cast that includes Kevin Love, Ricky Rubio, Caris LeVert and Isaac Okoro all but assures that.