Lauri Markkanen has been the catalyst in the Utah Jazz's unexpected rise in the Western Conference. After blowing up the team during the summer, the general expectation was that the Jazz were going to be bad this season — bad enough to be in contention for projected first-overall pick Victor Wembanyama in the 2023 NBA Draft. Well, Markkanen and Co. had other ideas.
Markkanen recently revealed the mindset his team has imbibed since Day 1. According to the 25-year-old, the whole squad knew that they could be special the moment they started training camp this past summer. At that point, they all knew that tanking for Wembanyama just wasn't really going to be an option for them:
“We were just confident and we weren't going for that ‘tanking talk,'” Markkanen said. “I think it just fueled us a little bit more and just fired that competitive spirit on all of us.”
"We were just confident and we weren't going for that 'tanking talk'— it just fueled us a little bit more and just fired that competitive spirit on all of us."
-Lauri Markkanen, on talks saying the Jazz are tanking for Victor Wembanyama.
(via @ESPNNBA)pic.twitter.com/KDCGxMHOPg
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPointsApp) January 6, 2023
The Jazz may have fallen back down to earth recently after starting off the season as one of the best teams in the West. Nevertheless, they have proven that they can go toe-to-toe against the big teams in the conference.
There's no denying that Markkanen has been integral to Utah's success so far this season. The 7-foot forward's mind-numbing explosion against the Houston Rockets on Thursday night is a clear testament to this fact. He almost single-handedly willed his team to their first win in six games with a career-high 49-point eruption against the Rockets. If Markkanen keeps this up, then it wouldn't at all be surprising if the Jazz end up in the playoffs this year.
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