CLEVELAND — After splitting contests against the Denver Nuggets and Phoenix Suns, the Cleveland Cavaliers will continue their five-game West Coast road trip against the Utah Jazz on Tuesday night.
But while the 26-15 Cavs are focused on maintaining their footing in the Eastern Conference standings, Donovan Mitchell knows that the team's lone trip to Salt Lake City this season won't be just like any other game.
"Obviously, there's going to be a lot of stuff going on," Mitchell admitted while talking to reporters following Cleveland's win in Phoenix on Sunday. "But we've just gotta get another win on the road as a group."
That "stuff" Mitchell is referring to centers around what will be his first game in Utah since the blockbuster trade that sent him from the Jazz to the Cavs last September. While his exit may have been messy, the reality is that Utah is where Mitchell spent the first five seasons of NBA career and first established himself as one of the league's brightest young stars.
"We did a lot of great things there," Mitchell said of his time with the Jazz. "Obviously we didn't accomplish our end goal. I don't know what the response will be. I hope it's cheers. I had a lot of positives despite not winning a championship."
The No. 13 overall pick of the 2017 NBA Draft, Mitchell found instant success joining a Utah team that was expected to rebuild following the offseason free agency departure of All-Star forward Gordon Hayward. Rather, behind a first-team All-Rookie season by the Louisville product, the Jazz amassed a 48-34 record and beat the Oklahoma City Thunder in six games in the first round of the NBA Playoffs before falling to the Houston Rockets in the second round.
Mitchell would help lead Utah back to the playoffs in each of the following two seasons -- the latter of which he earned his first of three All-Star appearances as a member of the Jazz. Utah, however, failed to make it past the first round of the playoffs in either season, although his duel with Nuggets guard Jamal Murray remains one of the highlights of the 2020 NBA Bubble.
The Jazz bounced back in the 2020-21 campaign, with Mitchell and 3-time Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert leading Utah to the best record in the NBA at 52-20. The Jazz, however, would once again fall short in the postseason, losing a six-game series to the Los Angeles Clippers in the second round.
The 2021-22 season would prove to be Mitchell -- and Gobert's -- last in Utah, with both star players underperforming in a six-game first-round series defeat to the Dallas Mavericks. Following the season, Utah signaled that it was entering an apparent rebuild, which began with Gobert being traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves for a draft picks-laden package.
As for Mitchell, while it's unclear whether or not he ever formally requested a trade, it was clear his time with the franchise that drafted him was nearing its end. Although most of the trade speculation throughout the offseason centered on the New York Knicks, it was ultimately the Cavs who pulled the trigger to acquire the 26-year-old star, sending the Jazz forward Lauri Markkanen, guard Collin Sexton, rookie Ochai Agbaji and another haul of draft picks.
Through the first four months of the season, the trade has worked out well for both teams, with Markannen emerging as a legitimate All-Star candidate and Mitchell turning in a career year, highlighted by last week's 71-point performance vs. the Chicago Bulls.
As for the reception he'll receive from his former home crowd, Mitchell isn't sure what to expect. But as far as the 3-time All-Star is concerned, it's nothing but love on his end.
"I may get booed, I may get cheered. I had been there for five years," Mitchell said. "It's a lot of great memories. That's it. We've got to find a way to win on the road. It's a tough place to play."