With the NBA Draft now in the rearview, free agency and trade season is officially here. For the Utah Jazz, that means deciding what to do with Lauri Markkanen. Markkanen is one of the top rising stars in the NBA but the Jazz are nowhere near being a team ready to compete. Rival teams are reportedly looking to gauge the Jazz's trade interest in Lauri Markkanen but are focused on coming to terms on a contract extension as per Jake Fischer of Yahoo Sports.
Fischer reports that, “At this point, the Jazz are expected to prioritize finding an extension agreement with Markkanen, sources said, and Utah officials made that clear during their approach for Bridges. That won't stop rival teams from calling and registering their interest in Markkanen, with the hope that Utah could decide to punt like Brooklyn – if the Jazz aren't able to secure someone close to a second star for Markkanen.”
There's no doubt that opposing teams would have trade interest in Lauri Markkanen but it's in the Jazz's best interest to try and get a contract extension done. Markkanen is a talented young player who is still developing. While Markkanen was not selected to the NBA All-Star team last season, he put up an All-Star caliber year.
Markkanen appeared in 55 games at a little over 33 minutes per game. He averaged 23.2 points, 8.9 rebounds and 2.0 assists with splits of 48 percent shooting from the field, 39.9 percent shooting from the three-point line and 89.9 percent shooting from the free-throw line.
Jazz have abundance of young talent following NBA Draft
While Markkanen might be the Jazz's centerpiece, the team has done well in back to back NBA Drafts to acquire a nice group of young talent. The Jazz had three picks in the 2024 NBA Draft, two in the first round and one in the second round.
The Jazz used their first round picks on Colorado's Cody Williams and USC's Isaiah Collier. They used their second round pick on Duke's Kyle Filipowski. It was quite the haul for the Jazz. Williams was often projected to be a top-five pick while Collier was considered a lottery talent. Filipowski was also considered a first round talent.
This draft comes on the heels of last season when the Jazz garnered another strong haul. In 2023 the Jazz came away with Keyonte George, Taylor Hendricks and Brice Sensabaugh. All three figure to be featured prominently in the Jazz future plans. The team also has Walker Kessler as part of their young core.
The Jazz also have a couple of veteran players in Jordan Clarkson and Collin Sexton whom they could attempt to trade to bring back further draft capital or young prospects. The Jazz missed the playoffs last season for the second consecutive year.
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