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What if we had traded for Markkanen without giving up Mitchell?

Korisfani said:
For the Cavs Lauri was just some guy. Replaceable. An opportunity to play all three bigs but also a headache to play all three bigs. Still doubt it would've been just one 1st to get them to give him up.
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15 and 6 isnt just some guy. He wasnt as well used but he still might have been in line for a nice bumpage coming off a great Eurobasket. They wouldnt just sell him off for a first rounder.
 
Just purely playing what if, not pretending there was a snowball's chance in my pants of actually making the trade, then yes adding Lauri to the Jazz's previous iteration would have yielded a championship contender. The issue would remain though how Rudy and Mitchell could play together, would Lauri have made the same jump in performance he did this year regardless, and would Mitchell have crapped out on the team anyway. Those are tough questions to answer. I bet we would have been better, and maybe won more games, and maybe an extra playoff series, but I doubt we could have overcome all this that was already brewing and won the ring.
 
There are lots of options that would have made us a solid contender this year if we have kept Donny or Rudy.
 
I followed a few teams last year, and the Cavs were one of them. It’s pretty clear that Lauri was firmly in the Cavs’ future plans, and the Cavs wouldn’t have wanted to move him easily. Lauri’s game improved throughout the season considerably (as he learnt to play at 3) with the Cavs, and by the end of it, the FO considered him as a core piece for the Cavs. They wanted him to stay at 3, and Bickerstaff even went to Finland to check his training for it. And let’s not forget that when Lauri, Allen, and Mobley were on the court together, the Cavs’ numbers were near the top in the league, and they were 3rd in the standings in the East before the injuries began to derail their season. Also, Koby didn’t want to include Lauri in the Mitchell trade, but at the end Ainge was able have his way. I am pretty sure that Bickerstaff in particular, who probably knew Lauri’s game better than anyone, wasn’t happy to hear that he was traded.
 
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LogGrad98 said:
Just purely playing what if, not pretending there was a snowball's chance in my pants of actually making the trade, then yes adding Lauri to the Jazz's previous iteration would have yielded a championship contender. The issue would remain though how Rudy and Mitchell could play together, would Lauri have made the same jump in performance he did this year regardless, and would Mitchell have crapped out on the team anyway. Those are tough questions to answer. I bet we would have been better, and maybe won more games, and maybe an extra playoff series, but I doubt we could have overcome all this that was already brewing and won the ring.
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No I meant Rudy already traded but Mitchell not.. could we have used the picks from he Rudy’s trade to get Markkanen.
 
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