The 2020 NBA Draft and the start of free agency are both set later this week, but that hasn’t really stopped the news cycle about potential player movements around the league. So when ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported that the Los Angeles Lakers went from discussing a possible trade with the Oklahoma City Thunder about acquiring guard Dennis Schroder to reporting that the trade was all but finalized, a lot of people were surprised at how fast things moved. One of them happened to be Utah Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell,

Mitchell let Wojnarowski know about it, and the Senior NBA Insider told him that things move fast when it comes to free agency news, and he has to keep up. 

The NBA is known for having a chaotic free agency period full of wheeling and dealing between multiple teams. If this trade is any indication, then it seems as if a shortened time period due to the return of the NBA on December 22 hasn’t prevented teams from making swift deals to acquire players and assets. 

It’s safe to say that it won’t just be Mitchell who will have a hard time keeping up with free agency news in the coming days.

The Jazz are coming off a season which saw them finish with a 44-28 record, which was good for sixth in the Western Conference. However, despite taking a 3-1 series lead, the Jazz were eliminated by the third-seeded Denver Nuggets in the first round of the playoffs. Mitchell could soon find out that his own team will be in the free agency news cycle, with rumors swirling that Utah center Rudy Gobert could be a trade target for the rising Dallas Mavericks. 

The good news for Donovan Mitchell and the Jazz, however, is that point guard Mike Conley is expected to bypass free agency and instead will be exercising the player option on his current contract.