Late last week, a report indicated that the Utah Jazz would consider shopping their All-Star forward Lauri Markkanen given that the team isn’t exactly ready to compete.
Although it’s highly unlikely that a trade will occur before the New Year, if it even happens at all, Kevin O’Connor of The Ringer reports that the Jazz will reportedly command a draft pick-heavy package in the vein of their previous Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert moves.
“My impression from talking to teams is that it’s something resembling the haul the Jazz received for Mitchell and Gobert: so, five-ish firsts and/or players of comparable value.”
While there is a bevy of teams that would rejoice at the opportunity of acquiring an All-Star in his mid-twenties, his success is still recent, having only broken out in his sixth year. He doesn’t have the relative playoff success that his predecessors had during their time together.
The Jazz’s high asking price could be a result of striking while the iron is hot or simply setting the bar for where negotiations could go once they have an intriguing offer on the table.
Nevertheless, if Utah wants to go forth with a total rebuild, they could probably get a haul revolving around a young player with a high ceiling and some generous draft compensation.
The Utah Jazz haven’t exactly lit the league on fire this season. The team sits in 12th place in the Western Conference with a 9-17 record. They have a nice mix of veterans and young players, but it may be time to end the balance and lean fully into a rebuild.
Markkanen is only 26 years old but is only under contract through the 2024-25 season when he’s due an extremely reasonable $18 million. Should the Jazz want to sign him, it’ll likely be a max deal, something that wouldn’t exactly benefit a team that’s lacking a true identity.
While his points per game average this season (23.4) is slightly less than last campaign’s (25.6), he’s still scoring just as efficiently (48.9 percent from the field). He’s proven to be a capable first option, but a team in desperate need of scoring could slot him in as the second option behind a veritable star.
Utah has a few intriguing young pieces to build around. Point guard Keyonte George and center Walker Kessler have shown flashes of brilliance in their careers so far, but it’s unclear whether they can be the ones to usher in a new era of Jazz basketball.
While they have been good, the team’s top performers are all at least 25 years old, making it difficult to begin a rebuild with them at the helm. Jordan Clarkson, John Collins, and Collin Sexton can all score at a decent rate, but as a whole, they’re not particularly frightening.
A potential Markkanen trade could also see one or more of these players included to maximize their return and focus on a youth movement that can fully transform them into a team to look out for in the future.
If draft picks are what the Jazz want, they can look at the Oklahoma City Thunder, who rid themselves of Russell Westbrook, Chris Paul, and Paul George in order to get more draft picks than many other teams combined in the next few years.
Rebuilds can be tricky, to be sure, but if the Jazz want to go young, they’ll have to ensure the front office makes the right moves in the coming weeks.
