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The Utah Jazz were one of the worst teams in the NBA this season as Will Hardy tried to get his young guys plenty of game experience down the back half of the season. The bet was that the Jazz would be picking high in the NBA Draft as a result of their struggles, but that isn't necessarily the case.
The ping pong balls were not kind to the Jazz at all, and now Utah will be picking No. 5 overall despite having the worst record in the NBA in 2024-25 at 17-65. While that is still a good pick in a very good draft class, it is far from the haul that is Cooper Flagg or Dylan Harper at the very top.
Now, the Jazz enter another offseason wondering what to do with their roster, especially star forward Lauri Markkanen. The former Cleveland Cavaliers standout has been the subject of trade rumors for years now, but his value is lower now after a contract extension, some injuries and a down season overall.
Still, if the Jazz want to move completely toward their young core with whoever they add at No. 5 this summer, they could still look to move off of Markkanen and other teams will be interested, according to Brett Siegel of ClutchPoints
“Rival teams are expected to once again inquire about Lauri Markkanen, but his trade value has decreased significantly after signing an extension last summer,” Siegel wrote. “The massive haul Utah could have received for Markkanen last summer isn't expected to be available this time around.”
While Markkanen's production may not look like what it did a year or two ago, his skillset would still fit right in with what a contending team would want at the forward spot. The Arizona product is an elite shooter and has some shot creation chops off the bounce, which he has gotten a chance to refine over the last few years on a bad Jazz team.
Markkanen isn't elite on defense, but he can slide his feet and has very good positional size, which should make him an asset for any team at the very least. Especially now that the price in a possible trade for him has gone down, expect a lot of very good teams to be calling Utah about its franchise player in the coming months.
