The Utah Jazz are reportedly listening to offers for their superstar Donovan Mitchell (pictured).. Photo: Getty Images.

This year’s NBA off-season merry-go-round is all but done … or is it?

The draft has been and gone, most of the big-name free agents have inked new deals and there has been a smattering of trades, so we’re now at the back end of it all, right?

Well, not quite. Between a pair of quite high-profile trade requests, a team firing up the ol’ tank and a few remaining free agents yet to be signed, we still have dominoes to fall.

Let’s take a look at the what’s left to resolve.

Donovan Mitchell – and the Jazz in general

When trader Danny Ainge started his teardown of Utah’s roster, there were two schools of thought, both based on Ainge’s Celtic past: he would rebuild around a singular young star, like he did at the end of the 2003 season, moving on from Antoine Walker (amongst others) to create a team around Paul Pierce; or he would strip the team down altogether, like he did when moving on from an ageing Pierce along with Kevin Garnett in 2013. Either way, the perennially disappointing Jazz were to be reset.

Initially, the Jazz publicly stated that they were going to keep their remaining star in Donovan Mitchell around. Now they’re reportedly listening to offers, though expect the price to be exorbitantly high.

Miami has been touted as a possible destination, though it doesn’t have anything like the draft capital that Utah would want, despite Ainge’s well-known appreciation of Tyler Herro. There’s also the slight issue of Ainge and Pat Riley utterly hating each other.

Brooklyn remains a possibility. Mitchell’s long made it known that he’d like to play in New York at some point and the Nets could put together a package based – ironically – around Ben Simmons.

The favourite, though, remains Brooklyn’s cross-town rivals the New York Knicks who have the trade capital, the tradable contracts and the young talent to facilitate a trade to Utah’s liking. It’s worth noting, however, that the Knicks’ behaviour where Mitchell is concerned has the Jazz brass mightily annoyed.

Whilst the deal is more than likely to get done, talks won’t be cordial.

If/when Mitchell is moved, the Jazz still have a plethora of veterans to move. Bojan Bogdanovic, Mike Conley and Jordan Clarkson join the newly-acquired Patrick Beverley and Malik Beasley as players that will likely not be with the Jazz by the trade deadline.

Utah is embracing the tank. Shipping out Mitchell won’t be the last of its moves.

Kevin Durant

Will Kevin Durant ever find genuine happiness as a pro athlete? This writer has no doubt that Durant would see the court as a sanctuary, but he has yet to find any sort of peace in the harsh spotlight of an NBA arena.

His recent trade request sees KD check out on all three of his NBA homes. A trade, though, appears reasonably unlikely at this stage. Durant himself nominated Phoenix and Miami as his preferred trade destinations, but the Suns would have to build a deal around Deandre Ayton – more on him below – which is a non-starter for the time being after Phoenix matched the offer sheet Ayton signed with Indiana.

Durant only wants to go to Miami if it retains Jimmy Butler, Kyle Lowry and Bam Adebayo. That’s fair enough from Durant’s perspective but makes a deal almost impossible to construct. Herro, Max Strus and some picks are not getting it done.

Regardless of the destination, there are of course a pair of rather large obstacles standing in the way of KD and the Brooklyn exit door.

Durant recently signed a four-year extension with the Nets, signalling his apparent contentedness with what the Nets were building around him. That feeling, clearly, has passed.

Nonetheless, that contract means Durant’s future is not in his own hands. Nets general manager Sean Marks can hold out for as much as he wants in a trade, for as long as he sees fit.

That situation ties directly into the second barrier: the Gobert trade.

The remarkable haul that Utah extracted from the Timberwolves in moving on from Gobert resets the trade market in a way that suits Marks just fine. There is no way that the Kiwi would want to tear down the team he so meticulously built, so – barring an offer he simply can’t refuse – keeping Durant in Brooklyn black won’t keep Marks up at night.

In contrast to the Mitchell situation, expect the Durant drama to continue on for some time to come.

Kyrie Irving

Unlike Durant, his Nets running mate Kyrie Irving is in the final year of his deal and the Nets also seem more than willing to come to an arrangement. That said, Kyrie – a proven flight risk – will only appeal to a team that he wants to move to. That narrows the market quite considerably – to just one team, in fact: the Los Angeles Lakers.

After five years apart, Kyrie has realised that playing off of LeBron James is a pretty sweet deal. The issue, however, is that the Lakers are paying close to Warriors money for very much sub-Warriors results. To bring Irving – a great fit, by the way – on board they’ll need to ditch Russell Westbrook. That will take draft capital thrown in to sweeten the deal.

The Lakers understand this and are prepared to give up a future first-rounder. The Nets want two of those, or for LA to take on Joe Harris’ $20-million-per-season contract.

Until the impasse is, uh, passed, there will be no Irving deal. Perhaps a three-team deal is on the cards?

PLEASE HELP US CONTINUE TO THRIVE BY BECOMING AN OFFICIAL FOOTYOLOGY PATRON. JUST CLICK THIS LINK.

Deandre Ayton

With Phoenix matching Ayton’s offer sheet almost immediately after he signed it, the Suns appeared to put the soap opera to bed. Whilst that may be the case for the time being, in reality Phoenix has only managed to kick the can down the road a little.

Whilst the offer sheet theoretically ties Ayton to Phoenix, the team has a series of bridges that need rebuilding after continually refusing to offer the former first overall pick an extension over the past two years.

Ayton is ineligible to be traded until January 15 and can veto any trade until next July, which moves any potential Durant-to-Phoenix talk to the backburner. That does give the club a chance to rebuild its relationship with the Bahamian.

To Ayton’s credit, he put together an excellent 2022 season despite being openly upset at not getting an appropriate contract extension last off-season. He’s shown he can compartmentalise.

That said, it’s easier to put up with a situation when you think you’re not coming back. Now that he knows he’s coming back to Arizona, will his mood and commitment remain as professional?

Collin Sexton

Collin Sexton looked like he had the world at his feet after a breakout 2021 season. A knee injury limited his follow-up campaign to just 11 games – his form wasn’t exactly stellar in those matches, either.

Both the player and the Cavs are keen on sticking together, though an apparently healthy Sexton is looking for a long-term deal in the vicinity of $20 million per year. That seems unlikely.

Given that the market has dried up somewhat, the Cavs are the clear front-runner to ink Sexton to a contract. The intrigue lies in the dollars and years.

Does Sexton take a longer-term deal for less money now, knowing intimately that the health of a professional athlete can be fleeting? If so, does $60 million over four years get it done?

Alternatively, Sexton could bet on himself by taking his $7.2 million qualifying offer and potentially playing himself into a big money deal this time next year. If that’s the case, would the Cavaliers risk losing Sexton as an unrestricted free agent in 2023?

Miles Bridges

Bridges was going to command a deal in the range of $25 million per year this off-season, until his wife rightly went public with Bridges’ abhorrent behaviour towards her (rather than link to any stories about the horror that Bridges has put his family through, this writer would rather link to this).

Now, Bridges’ NBA career is hanging by a thread. He has been extended a qualifying offer by the Hornets, making him a restricted free agent. In theory he can sign an offer sheet with any NBA team, though it would be PR – and possibly locker room – suicide to take on Bridges whilst such serious charges are still pending.

Bridges is due to appear in court on July 20.

The veteran trade candidates

Outside of the high-profile players covered above, there is a handful of veterans that, despite expectations that they would be moved, still remain with their current teams.

Orlando duo Terrance Ross and Gary Harris were both expected to be shipped out to create playing time for Orlando’s raft of young guards. Both are effectively on expiring deals this season (Harris is on a two-year contract, through that second season is largely unguaranteed) and can still do a job on good teams.

Both are also on reasonable deals in the $10-15 million range and if both start the season on the Magic roster, expect them to be gone by the trade deadline.

Similarly, Sacramento has a pair of veterans that don’t seem to fit in with its current plans.

Harrison Barnes is a fine player, who is often underrated, but at 30, he’s not really on the same timeline as the Kings’ current core. In addition, there is a whole lot of positional overlap with fourth overall pick Keegan Murray.

Barnes is an unrestricted free agent at the end of the 2023 season and would surely be a huge addition to a contender.

Richaun Holmes is massively overqualified in his current role as the 15-minute-per-game back-up to Domantas Sabonis. A versatile defender with great touch around the basket, Holmes is a starting centre in the NBA and a contender with concerns at the pivot position would be mad not to see what it would take for the Kings to move on from the 28-year-old.

There are so many rumours around the future of Minnesota’s D’Angelo Russell that it’s almost become a cottage industry of its own. On paper, he’s a great fit at both ends next to the newly acquired Gobert and is famously tight with Karl-Anthony Towns. So why is Russell always headlining the rumour mill? He’s on an expiring deal worth $34 million.

Minnesota’s roster just got a whole lot more expensive and, in any case, Russell has proven that he’s not worth that sort of money. If both sides approach negotiations with sensible expectations, a deal should be reached. If not, the Wolves risk losing a locker room leader and fine point guard for nothing.

To find more of Jarrod Prosser’s content visit vendettasportsmedia.com