Donovan Mitchell Rumors: Magic 'Don't Appear' to Have Heavily Pursued Trade for Star

The Orlando Magic have been trying to find reliable guard play for years, but they apparently didn't make any serious inquires to the Utah Jazz about Donovan Mitchell.

Per ESPN's Zach Lowe, the Magic "don't appear to have dived deeply" into the Mitchell sweepstakes before he was traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers.

There were no rumors about the Magic being one of the teams in on Mitchell, so this doesn't come as much of a surprise.

It could speak to the different ways that teams think about team-building. Mitchell would have fit on a team like the Magic because he's only 26 and has already made the All-Star team three times.

But there's also an argument that trading for Mitchell would have prevented the Magic from building a roster that's good enough to compete for a title around him.

Cleveland had to trade a good young scoring guard (Collin Sexton), solid role player (Lauri Markkanen), 2022 first-round pick Ochai Agbaji, three unprotected first-round draft picks and two pick swaps to get Mitchell.

Let's assume that Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner were the only untouchable players on Orlando's roster in a potential trade.

There's an argument that Wendell Carter Jr. is a better player than anyone the Cavs sent to Utah, but the Magic would have been running purely on a trio of Mitchell-Banchero-Wagner with no future draft capital to add high-end talent.

It's a situation similar to what the New York Knicks were facing when they were rumored to be in talks for Mitchell. Adding a player of his caliber sounds great in theory, but depleting a mediocre roster to make it happen doesn't make you a better team.

The Cavs made perfect sense for Mitchell because they were coming off a surprise 44-38 record last season and have three star players under the age of 25 (Jarrett Allen, Evan Mobley, Darius Garland) who they didn't have to give up.

Mitchell's scoring ability significantly raises Cleveland's ceiling for this season and beyond. Short-term winning has to be taken into account when deciding to trade for Mitchell, because he can become a free agent after the 2024-25 season.

The Magic were able to select Banchero because they won the lottery after posting the worst record in the Eastern Conference last season (22-60).

Banchero looks like a superstar through his first 11 games. Mitchell would have looked good next to him, but the Magic are probably better off having kept all of their picks.

Orlando is 4-11 this season and looks like it will be in the lottery mix to get a top pick in 2023 when Victor Wembanyama and Scoot Henderson could be available.