Scott Perry: Knicks Didn’t View Donovan Mitchell As Franchise-Carrying Singular Force

Now that Scott Perry has moved over to the media, he explained the decision by the New York Knicks to not embark on an all-out pursuit of Donovan Mitchell during the 2022 offseason. Mitchell was widely expected to eventually be traded by the Utah Jazz to the Knicks, but they instead moved him to the Cleveland Cavaliers.

“Obviously we made a push to trade for him,” Perry said on a recent episode of “The Hoop Genius” podcast.

“But it was going to be done within reason. He was a good player but he needed more around him to win. Because if he was that singular force, Utah probably would’ve been in the conference finals if he were that singular force. But he wasn’t that singular force. That’s not a criticism against him. That’s just an evaluation that you must make.”

While the Cavaliers were able to trade for Mitchell without parting with any of their core three players of Darius Garland, Evan Mobley or Jarrett Allen, the Knicks likely would have had to trade RJ Barrett and one or more other young players. The Cavaliers did include Lauri Markkanen, who emerged as an All-Star with the Jazz.

“(Mitchell’s) an excellent basketball player. Multi-year All-Star. Tremendous young man. New York kid,” Perry said. “But you got to ask yourself, if the other team you’re tracking with is wanting to take two-thirds or three-quarters of all your young talent, and all of your draft capital, is what’s left behind going to good enough for you to win rather than hold on to what you have and be a little patient?”