Cleveland general manager Koby Altman had been in discussions with the Jazz through late last week, but ended talks Friday when the two teams couldn't reach an agreement, sources said. Nevertheless, Altman reached back out to Utah general manager Justin Zanik on Tuesday morning and started the talks again, sources said. Within 48 hours, they had a deal for Mitchell.
New York had the assets Utah preferred and the sides seemed to be inching closer to a trade Sunday night and into Monday, but the Knicks balked on including
Quentin Grimes in a trade with
RJ Barrett to acquire Mitchell, sources said.
When guard
Immanuel Quickley was proposed as a replacement for Grimes in the trade, Utah wanted three unprotected first-round draft picks as part of the package -- but New York would only do a third first-round pick that included top-five protections, sources said. Those packages would've included two second-round picks, two pick swaps and two expiring contracts from a third team, sources said. New York would've moved out
Evan Fournier and first-round pick to a third team to spare Utah taking on Fournier's remaining $37 million, sources said.
New York president Leon Rose had been running a parallel negotiation with Barrett's agent, Bill Duffy, on a rookie contract extension and set Monday night as a deadline with the Jazz to get a deal -- or pause talks to finalize a new deal with Barrett, sources said. Barrett's deal -- four years and worth up to $120 million, Duffy told ESPN -- added a "poison pill" provision to his contract until next July and would've forced the Knicks and Jazz to restart talks with new deal parameters based on the extension.
New York planned to continue pursuing Mitchell, sources said, but the Jazz pivoted to the Cleveland discussions and never again engaged the Knicks in talks this week, sources said. The Knicks had made a calculated gamble that they could still get a deal done for Mitchell. Born in the New York area, Mitchell had been enthusiastic about the possibility of playing for the Knicks, sources said.
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