There has been some speculation that the New York Knicks feel like the Utah Jazz made their decision to trade Donovan Mitchell to the Cleveland Cavaliers rather than to them due to some level of "animus."

The Knicks and Jazz negotiated a Mitchell trade for weeks, which came after members of the New York front office sat prominently in the arena during a first round playoff game between Utah and the Dallas Mavericks.

"I've seen some reports, forgive me I can't remember who, said 'Well, the Jazz were upset Donovan Mitchell maybe wasn't all-in forever with Utah and as punishment we'll send him to a place he doesn't want to go do,'" said Zach Lowe on his podcast.

"Emotions can play into this. I've been assured by the Utah side that 'No, look, we're mature people. Yes, we were upset with particularly the Mavs' game incident, but we're not going to make decisions based on those kind of things that now happened four months ago or whatever. We've made the best deal possible.'"

Ian Begley agreed with Lowe that the Jazz acted in their own best interest and didn't let emotion play a factor in their decision making.