The Cavs traded for Donovan Mitchell and instantly became Eastern Conference contenders

Here come the Cavs.

Hello, NBA world!

We have a trade. A very surprising trade.

Out of nowhere, on a random Thursday to begin September, the Cleveland Cavaliers woke up and decided its time to go all the way in, while the Jazz continued forward with their tank.

ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski broke the news on Thursday afternoon that the Cavs acquired Donovan Mitchell in a trade with the Utah Jazz. Three first-round picks and two pick swaps are headed to Utah, along with Lauri Markkanen, Ochai Agbaji and Colin Sexton.

The Woj bomb came out of left field. Mitchell had been linked all offseason to the New York Knicks and hardly at all to Cleveland.

Nevertheless, the acquisition makes the Cavs a dangerous team and greatly changes the sports betting industry.

As recently as a month ago, oddsmakers had Cleveland’s win total set at 42.5 games, which was surprising being that Cleveland notched 44 wins a season ago with some of the worst injury luck in the league. Taking the Over on the specific future was arguably the easiest to make of any team ahead of next season.

And if you got in on the 42.5 wins, congrats! That total bumped up to 45.5 now, making it a much tougher bet to place.

But if you’re confident in what Mitchell brings to an already-good Cleveland team, go ahead and take the Over. And if you’re thinking the Cavs win that many games you might want to make a play on them winning the Central division as well, where their odds have moved from +700 to +300 following the big trade.

There are at least two sides to every trade, though, and this one is also a win for the Jazz who very obviously had intentions of blowing up the roster, acquiring assets and entering the Victor Wembenyama sweepstakes.

The plan couldn’t have been clearer for even a casual follower to figure out, but Mitchell being rostered up until today meant oddsmakers couldn’t set the bar too low for Utah’s 2022-23 win totals. If you were smart, you took the Under weeks ago knowing a Mitchell trade was inevitable and would sink the win total much lower than the previous 33.5 line. Now, at 27.5 post-trade, the Under is riskier.

The 2022 NBA offseason continues to be all over the place from a betting angle. This little game we play with our money is all about timing. Can you get your bet in at the right time before something causes the odds to move?

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