Donovan Mitchell's trade move to the Cleveland Cavaliers sent shockwaves to the entire basketball world. The New York Knicks were long considered the favorites to land the now-ex-Utah Jazz superstar, only for the Cavs to come in and destroy New York's hopes and dreams at the 13th hour.

Previous reports suggest that the Knicks set an internal deadline on their chase for Mitchell, and that when it passed, they opted to sign RJ Barrett to a massive extension. Nevertheless, New York still thought they had a shot at Mitchell. Unfortunately for them, the Jazz never gave them a chance.

NBA guru Adrian Wojnarowski dropped a truth bomb on a recent episode of his podcast. According to Woj, the Knicks were left hanging as the Jazz accepted Cleveland's offer for Mitchell (h/t Doric Sam of Bleacher Report):

“I do think New York expected they would circle back, and they never got another chance with Utah,” Woj said. “Utah did not go back to them on Thursday and say, ‘Hey, we've got this offer from Cleveland. Do you want to top it?' In their mind, when New York walked on Monday, that was it. They had a deal with Cleveland that they just did, agreed to it. And New York found out after that Mitchell deal was already agreed to, that he was on his way to Cleveland, and Utah was not circling back with New York to give them a chance to top the deal.”

It sounds like the Knicks may have been bluffing when they walked away from the deal on Monday. Woj seems to imply that New York was hoping that the Jazz would reconsider their position. At the very least, the Knicks expected to get a chance to submit a counteroffer before Utah green-lighted the deal with the Cavs. Obviously, this never happened.

It does feel like the Knicks may have overplayed their hand here, which led to the Cavs pulling off a successful coup on Donovan Mitchell. New York loses again.