Fan runs into Donovan Mitchell in Italy, allegedly asks him to leave Cleveland for Miami

An NBA fan alleges that he saw Cleveland Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell in Italy and pleaded with him to join the Heat.

Ashish Mathur of Hoops Wire outlined last month what a trade sending Mitchell to the Heat could look like.

“[Dan] Gilbert and Koby Altman would look for a lucrative package of multiple draft picks and one or two young players with star potential in a Mitchell trade,” wrote Mathur.

“For example, a source told Hoops Wire that the Cavaliers would ask for Tyler Herro and Jaime Jaquez Jr. from the Heat in Mitchell trade talks if it gets to that point.”

Also last month, Heat big man Bam Adebayo helped ignite rumors connecting Mitchell to Miami with a post he made on X (previously known as Twitter).

Mitchell was one of the elite offensive players in the NBA during the 2023-24 regular season. He averaged 26.6 points per game on 46.2 percent shooting from the field and 36.8 percent from deep along with 6.1 assists per contest across 55 games played in his second season with the Cavaliers franchise.

He led the Cavaliers in points per game by a wide margin, considering Darius Garland averaged the second-most points on the team with 18.0. On top of that, Mitchell dished out the second-most assists per contest on the team behind only Garland, who averaged 6.5.

After a memorable regular season, the 27-year-old helped the Cavaliers win their first playoff series since 2018. Cleveland eliminated Paolo Banchero’s Orlando Magic in the opening round of the 2024 NBA Playoffs, and Mitchell averaged 28.7 points per game while shooting 45.9 percent from the field for the series.

Then, in Cleveland’s second-round series against the Boston Celtics, Mitchell scored the ball at an even higher level than he did against Orlando. While Mitchell played in just three of the five games of the series, the Celtics had no answer for him defensively when he was healthy.

Mitchell averaged a whopping 31.7 points per game against a Celtics team that currently owns a 3-1 lead in the NBA Finals and converted 53.3 percent of his 3-point attempts.

Considering how productive Mitchell was in his second season in Cleveland along with the fact that a trio of Jimmy Butler, Adebayo and Mitchell would make the Heat a dangerous team on paper, the Cavaliers seemingly should do all they can to ensure that the former University of Louisville standout remains with the team.