NBA News: Davion Mitchell Reportedly Traded to Heat from Raptors for PJ Tucker, More

The Toronto Raptors didn't keep Davion Mitchell for long.

Toronto reportedly traded the guard to the Miami Heat on Thursday in exchange for PJ Tucker, a second-round draft pick and cash, according to Shams Charania of ESPN.

Mitchell's future was under the spotlight, as he is scheduled for restricted free agency after the 2024-25 season. While the Raptors could have matched whatever offer he received on the open market, they decided to trade him before he potentially looked to move elsewhere.

It is still somewhat surprising to see Toronto move on from the guard so quickly after it acquired him from the Sacramento Kings.

That trade happened around the 2024 NBA draft, as the Kings swapped Mitchell, Sasha Vezenkov and Jamal Shead to the Raptors for Jalen McDaniels.

It also meant moving on from Mitchell for the Kings, which surely wasn't an easy decision since he was the No. 9 overall pick of the 2021 NBA draft and wasted no time making an impact with the best season of his career to this point as a rookie.

He averaged 11.5 points, 4.2 assists, 2.2 rebounds and 0.7 steals per game while shooting 41.8 percent from the field and 31.6 percent from deep. However, he had a smaller role in his second and third seasons and saw his minutes per game drop from 27.7 as a rookie to 18.1 in his second season to 15.3 in his third season.

As a result, his numbers dropped to 5.3 points, 1.9 assists and 1.3 rebounds a night during the 2023-24 campaign before the Kings traded him to Toronto.

Mitchell at least improved his shooting efficiency at 45.2 percent from the field and 36.1 percent from deep last season, and he responded with 6.3 points and 4.6 assists per game during his first season with the Raptors. Mitchell is shooting 43.4 percent from the field and 35.8 percent from three this season.

The shooting ultimately determines his ceiling since he is versatile enough to defend multiple positions at just 26 years old. His quickness on the perimeter allows him to stay in front of ball-handlers, and opponents shot 2.0 percent worse from deep and 2.1 percent worse from greater than 15 feet than their normal averages when he defended them in 2023-24, per NBA.com.

It isn't difficult to envision Mitchell becoming a key contributor with a larger role as his career continues given the defense and his improved shooting.

Perhaps the Heat will give him that role following this trade, as he still has a promising future even if his overall production has trended in the wrong direction of late.