My take on all this -
Ainge didn't like anything he saw last year and wanted to burn it to the ground. Quin left because he knew he'd be working with nothing and it could tarnish his coaching record. Ainge then avoided the draft completely. Ainge's first big roster move was to get a draft pick while simultaneously sending a message that nobody was safe. Ainge then shopped around Rudy until he got a deal he wanted and a deal all larger than almost everybody expected.
After those two deals, Ainge could have come to Don and said - "hey Don - we are going to build a vision with you as a focus of it." According to some reports, that was supposedly the plan. Seemed like Hardy was on board with that too. We did, after all, get 3 good players in that Minnesota deal (PG, Beasley and JV). But who knows - those reports could have just been posturing and positive small market "optics" towards the team's remaining star. Not long after those "build around Don" reports, our FO said Don was available.
Could be that Don said he didn't have interest in a rebuild so Ainge then shopped him. I personally feel that if Don refused the organization's attempt to build around him, it would have leaked through the media. After months and months of Andy Larsen and Tony Jones and other reports about "Don eventually wanting out", any sort of refusal by Don's camp would have been leaked by now. People will speculate that CAA might be pulling strings, but the Jazz have more reason to release that Don wants out than they do to keep that quiet. We are, after all, shopping a star at the beginning of his prime even though there is a solid roster with assets still in place. And Don has more reason to leak that he wants out than he does to stay quiet.
So my firm belief is that Ainge wanted to ship out Rudy, Don and anybody else regardless of what Rudy or Don wanted.
Now, our organization has missed any opportunity of building around Donovan Mitchell. No, Donovan didn't force Ainge's hand. This is what Ainge wanted all along. He wanted a blank slate. Coach, then stars then remaining roster.