Utah Jazz mailbag: Do the Jazz want to trade Lauri Markkanen?

Reports about interest in the Jazz’s Finnish forward has fans wondering what might happen.

The NBA Finals are underway, we are less than three weeks out from the 2024 NBA Draft and less than a month from the opening of free agency, so it’s a perfect time to open up the mailbag.

I want to start things out today with a topic that I think deserves some blunt and pointed attention — the interest from around the league in Lauri Markkanen.

There have been a number of reports recently that have tagged Markkanen as a person that other teams could be targeting. It is really important when reading through those reports to pay attention to what is actually being said. The majority of these stories that include Markkanen are proposed trade ideas that are not based in anything other than what sounds cool as an idea. Those don’t hold any real weight. We can all propose trades that will never happen.

Then, there is a second type of story that has come out — the interest from other NBA teams. These stories say that teams not named the Utah Jazz are interested in Markkanen, that teams not named the Utah Jazz believe the Jazz will listen to offers and then they ultimately say that the Jazz are likely to offer Markkanen an extension. My reaction to those claims is, ‘yeah, obviously.’

There are exactly 29 teams not named the Utah Jazz that would love to have Lauri Markkanen on their team. He is a versatile 7-foot player who shoots 40% from 3-point range and doesn’t need the ball in his hands to average upwards of 25 points per game.

The fact that the Jazz are willing to listen to offers is not news. There are only a handful of ‘untouchable’ players in the NBA and outside of those players, every team is willing to listen to offers about every player. That’s how the whole NBA world works.

ESPN Names Five Jazz Players To Top 100 NBA Rank

Here’s what I know to be true from the Jazz’s decision makers: They want to keep Markkanen. They want him to be a part of the future with the Jazz. They feel confident in being able to reach a deal on an extension that makes Markkanen happy while still giving them some flexibility moving forward. And finally, it would take an extraordinarily large haul for another team to pique the Jazz’s interest in an offer for Markkanen — like at least four picks plus players. I do not expect the Jazz to trade Markkanen.

If the Jazz were to trade Markkanen, I would expect that move would come much farther down the road and it would be because the Jazz don’t feel like they are able to build around him in a timely manner. But with the draft capital and the financial flexibility the Jazz have, there’s no reason they shouldn’t be able to build a team that includes Markkanen.

As for Sexton, he could end up being a piece in a trade that would bring over a player that the Jazz felt like better fit with their future plans, but they also really like his age, skillset and the progress that he’s shown while in Utah.