Cleveland Cavaliers president of basketball operations Koby Altman knew the risk and reward when he acquired Donovan Mitchell via trade from the Utah Jazz in September 2022.
The reward for aggressively pursuing Mitchell was an obvious one.
For the first time since LeBron James left for the Los Angeles Lakers in 2018, Cleveland had a top-15 player on its roster, and more importantly one under contract for the next three seasons.
The 2022 trade for Mitchell also started the clock on Cleveland building a championship roster and then selling the five-time All-Star on what the future could look like long-term with the Cavaliers.