Donovan Mitchell Removes Jazz from Twitter Bio amid Knicks Trade Rumors

We may have reached the passive-aggressive chess move phase of the Donovan Mitchell trade talks.

Mitchell removed any mention of the Jazz from his social media bios this week as the team continues to explore trading the All-Star guard.

Here is where we make the obligatory mention that Mitchell also removed the University of Louisville from his bio. It's also admittedly a little ridiculous that small social media changes turn NBA Twitter into Charlie Kelly trying to find Pepe Silvia.

That said, NBA players know fans are going to be savvy enough to figure this stuff out at this point. This was not a move done by accident or coincidence; Mitchell knew fans would notice and knew there would be subsequent articles from media trying to parse what it means.

The Jazz have made no secret that they're shopping Mitchell and stripping their roster to the spare parts for a rebuild. They made that abundantly clear when they shipped Rudy Gobert to Minnesota for a package centered on future draft picks. The front office feels it's gone as far as possible with the previous core and wants to move on—and that means trading Mitchell.

Everyone expects the three-time All-Star to be playing elsewhere next season. FanDuel currently lists the Jazz's over/under total for wins at 30.5; that's not a line oddsmakers would set if they had any confidence Mitchell would be staying.

Mitchell has kept a quiet public profile amid the rumors, seemingly not placing any pressure on the front office to get a deal done. Removing the Jazz from his bio is the closest we've gotten to an actual comment to this point and the likeliest signal that he'd like to be playing elsewhere by the time camp opens next month.

The New York Knicks have been considered an overwhelming favorite to land the New York native. Negotiations hit a bit of a snag Monday night when the Knicks reportedly inked RJ Barrett to a four-year contract extension, likely taking their best trade chip off the table. Still, New York has up to eight future first-round picks it can send Utah's way at any time.

It appears to be only a matter of time before a deal gets done.