The Jazz have been aggressively purging their roster of established veterans since Austin Ainge was hired as the team’s president of basketball operations last month, buying out Jordan Clarkson and trading Collin Sexton to the Hornets and John Collins to the Clippers for extremely limited returns.
However, while there has been a good deal of speculation from rival scouts and executives about whether Lauri Markkanen could be the next veteran on the move, Utah has no plans to trade its star forward at this point, per Tim MacMahon of ESPN.
As MacMahon explains, Markkanen shouldn’t necessarily be considered “untouchable,” but the Jazz continue to view the 28-year-old as part of their long-term core and hope he’s still on the roster by the time the club becomes competitive again.
Markkanen, who was sent from Cleveland to Utah as part of the Donovan Mitchell blockbuster in 2022, made an All-Star team and was named the NBA’s Most Improved Player in his first year with the Jazz. Over the course of his first two seasons in Utah, he averaged 24.5 points and 8.4 rebounds per game with an excellent shooting line of .490/.395/.885.
The Finnish forward battled injuries last season and was limited to just 47 appearances. His production also dropped off, as he put up just 19.0 PPG and 5.9 RPG with a more pedestrian shooting line of .423/.346/.876.
Coming off that down season and with four years and nearly $196MM left on his contract, Markkanen’s trade value appears diminished, so it makes sense that the Jazz aren’t eager to entertain offers, MacMahon writes.
Given that it would require a substantial haul for Ainge and his front office to consider moving the seven-footer, Markkanen may need a bounce-back performance this season to restore his value to the point where a potential suitor might be willing to make that sort of offer.
In the meantime, hanging onto Markkanen is unlikely to compromise the Jazz’s rebuilding efforts as they look to hang onto their top-eight protected 2026 first-round pick. His contract is the only sizable deal on the team’s books beyond this season, and there’s probably not enough established veteran talent on the roster for Utah to contend for a play-in spot in the West in 2025/26 even if Markkanen returns to All-Star form.
Of course they are not going to trade him. Its just click bait articles. Why would they trade him when they have no very many stars and can’t go under payroll low cap.
correct title of the article: “Jazz have no immediate plans to trade Markkanen” — i mean c’mon, anybody who thinks he finishes his contract as a member of the jazz is delusional. he will get traded, probably by the trade deadline, latest next offseason
He was supposed to be traded last off-season. There was a ton of buzz. The were in heavy pursuit before Paul George signed with Philly…So, it is not delusional to think he stays.
it is delusional…they will trade him soon. he’s literally wasting his career there.
that is a huge contract to trade. $46 million a year. Which means they are bring back a lot of payroll.
His production dropped off. He has a huge salary. Who would want him?
@Whisper
I don’t think he cares, he likes Salt Lake City and he’s very well paid.
Ainge will trade him if he can find some team to overpay significantly. It would have already happened but no one was willing to meet his ask.
The Ainges aren’t dumb. there is no point in keeping a good player in his prime while you have ZERO chance of contending. He will be traded for picks and/or young players. who cares if he likes it in utah, you really think the Ainges give a big poop about that?
He’s a white guy that likes mountains. He gushed about the area when he came there. Maybe he’s perfectly happy to ‘waste’ his career to the tune of 50 mill per year by the great salt lake. Maybe him and walker kessler can begin a cult
The last thing Utah needs is more cults.
Uhh…Are you trying to be racist? Cmon’ black guys don’t like mountains and especially skiing. Some of the best skiing in the country is a couple of blocks from downtown SLC. He’s from Finland. It probably feels like home. It is definitely not like New Orleans, or probably half the league.
It don’t feel like home, at least not in the summer when it’s 95+ degrees farenhiet for weeks on end.The record high for Vantaa Finland is 86.
So they will keep sitting him out to tank? Nice
No plans to be relevant either. Make sure they DO Not get a top 5 pick.
“The Finnish forward battled injuries last season and was limited to just 47 appearances.”
Let’s be real, he was “injured” for that many games the same way SGA was frequently “injured” when OKC was tanking.
Markkanen has missed substantial number of games every year of his career. Yes, he was also held out last year. But he’s soft as church music. He’ll probably play his whole career without a playoff game.
Remember when the returns the Jazz got for Mitchell & Gobert were seen as ridiculous hauls?
As draft picks play out like they do (lots of excitement, then the reality, then getting ready for the next draft) and most of what they got they’ve had to give away (Sexton is the latest), it sure feels like the Jazz went from finishing first in the West to a tear-down that is based more on hope of getting lucky than any sort of plan to get them back to where they were before the tear-down began.
Those massive hauls – don’t look as massive today as they did then. But if a lucky draft pick works out, maybe it looks good again … someday.
This is incredibly flawed thinking. Pointing out the picks didn’t pan out and therefore claiming the strategy is wrong begs the question what else were they supposed to do? They aren’t the Lakers or Knicks or Heat. They are not a destination for free agents and never will be. You will never have an AD situation of a star player demanding a trade to Utah. Even if the chances of success are low, this method to team building is still the best hope for teams like the Jazz to get star players and become a contender. Blame the league for flattening the lottery odds which have hurt them more than anything.
BlackAce, you overlook that the Jazz they had an option: don’t trade 24 year-old rising superstar Donovan Mitchell. Mitchell had 3 years left on his deal. He didn’t want to leave.
When you have 2 young superstars on long-term contracts (Gobert being the other), you don’t trade them. You build around them to get better.
Ainge needed to be the center of attention. Ainge promised the team would be better in 3 years. His “big game hunting” failed. His draft talent evaluation has been abysmal. The team has at least 2 more years at the bottom. That’s best case.
The result has been the worst failure by a GM in modern NBA history.
After the Bogdanović trade, the Jazz had no cap space and lacked valuable draft picks. They couldn’t make meaningful trades either, as the players with real trade value were core members of the roster. The front office had done all the team building it could, but the team still felt a player or two short.
“The result has been the worst failure by a GM in modern NBA history.”
Nah- the Sacramento Kings still exist.
I agree w/arete18 and I also agree w/you Black Ace that Utah is NOT a destination for free agents – which is why when you have a team that finished 1st, that is NOT the time to blow it up. It’s that rare once in a lifetime opportunity, you need to build on it b/c you won’t ever get those players again. Don’t throw it away! Why is that a good idea?
What are the chances of every getting that team again?
Everyone was under contract, you can say, well, they failed in the playoffs, and I agree – but does that suggest blow-up?
Why did they fail in the playoffs? b/c their coach Quinn Synder refused to change his rotations – there are a lot of articles around that point, and it is kind of fascinating reading if you are interested as he is the only coach not to shorten the bench during the playoffs – and it totally didn’t work multiple years in a row.
What is the answer to that approach not working?
Not to blow up the once in a generation team that was already under contract, it was time to change the coach! It feels obvious, but the new GM really wanted the glory of showing he was the one who did it, so he traded away everyone and the results speak for themselves.
The returns not working out only stresses the reality of how hard it is to create success in the first place.
Taking winning for granted and just presuming you can create a successful team is more than little stupid, and the results match that statement. Dump the 1st place team and start over b/c I want to is a crazy bad approach and how the GM isn’t held accountable can only be answered by “well, that is sports for you.”
Dumb. Should just embrace the youth movement like OKC did. And find a better scouting department.
Lauri can really FINNISH !!
They replaced Collins, Sexton and Clarkson with Love, Kyle Anderson and Nurkic. Ainge is a genius though right? Not a single lottery pick netted. Should have traded Markkanen last year!