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There are reasons Lauri Markkanen’s name keeps buzzing about the rumor mill. Reasons that the skilled 7-footer can surely see for himself.
To be clear, there’s nothing to suggest these reasons have convinced Markkanen to seek a trade away from the Jazz yet. In fact, Andy Larsen of The Salt Lake Tribune just relayed that “Markkanen truly enjoys living here, with a young family that fits well in Utah’s lifestyle and a climate he embraces.”
All of that can be true, and Markkanen could still want out for one obvious reason: His timeline isn’t the same as the team’s. Yes, the Jazz have a lot of young talent coming through the pipeline (and a ton of trade assets to acquire even more), but the 27-year-old could still wonder if anyone of it will level up in time to win at a high level while he’s still at his peak.
Markkanen has seven NBA seasons under his belt, and not one of them stretched into the playoffs. He might be running out of patience to experience the postseason, especially since his skills seem so perfectly suited for a win-now situation. He is a three-level scorer with sufficient creativity in his bag, but he’d also be awesome as a second or third option since he doesn’t need to dominate touches and can fit different roles on defense.
He could stay, lock in an extension when first eligible on Aug. 6 (and probably on that very day, since he wouldn’t be trade-eligible by the deadline if he signed any later) and sort the rest out later, but his list of potential landing spots wouldn’t be the same. His $18.4 million salary is a lot easier for win-now teams to fit in their budget than whatever he’d be paid on a renegotiate-and-extend new deal
If he wants to play postseason basketball sooner than later, then he probably needs a ticket out of Salt Lake City.
