The Jazz don't need to trade Lauri Markkanen

In the new NBA, rebuilds can turn quickly. Utah has a path to join that club ... if they keep the Finnisher. Good morning. Let's basketball.

Walker Kessler has had an odd NBA career. As the first tangible return for the Jazz on the initially panned Rudy Gobert trade, Kessler's solid rookie season represented a path forward for Utah in the context of having a defense-first center to carry the Stifle Tower's legacy. The offensive talent to replace Donovan Mitchell came in that summer's other big Salt Lake trade: Lauri Markkanen.

That first season post-trades, Kessler's rookie year, Markannen (age 25) won Most Improved Player and made the All-Star team. He was in serious contention for a third team All-NBA spot until he started regularly missing games down the stretch of the season. Kessler finished third in Rookie of the Year voting (behind winner Paolo Banchero and Jalen Williams), made first team All-Rookie and averaged more blocks per game than Gobert in fewer minutes.

Utah, expected to be a rebuilding team, instead finished 37-45. Their own pick came in at No. 9, and they took Taylor Hendricks. The second asset they picked up from the Wolves after Kessler was the No. 16 pick, Keyonte George. What's understated about that team at that time is that there wasn't a whole lot in the cupboard in terms of future building blocks other than Utah's own picks, Markkanen, Kessler and a few solid rotation players. The Jazz traded aging legend Mike Conley for a future Lakers first at the deadline; unfortunately for them, they attached Nickeil Alexander-Walker, now the most useful player involved in that eight-player trade, to Conley. The Jazz could have kept NAW, and they had Collin Sexton (who also came over in the Markkanen-Mitchell deal) and then role guys like Malik Beasley, Kris Dunn and a rookie Simone Fontecchio. But with the Wolves (who owed Utah a bunch of picks and swaps), Cavaliers (who owed Utah a bunch of picks and swaps) and Lakers (who owed Utah one pick) all various levels of good, the Jazz's best non-roster assets were their own picks. And so they tanked.

The 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons marked a franchise trying to lose. This was much more evident and frankly offensive in the latter season, at one point drawing punishment from the commissioner. It didn't result in landing a potentially generational star at the top of the draft – the Basketball Gods have some opinions about tanking – but Utah did finally get a top-5 pick in Ace Bailey, who at age 19 has shown some remarkable flashes and is, uh, finding his way. (He's shooting 32% from the floor right now. No one seems worried, or should be.) In the interim, the Jazz extended Markkanen's deal at a high dollar amount amid rampant noise from the outside about his trade prospects – teams want him, obviously, and many analysts enamored with his game would prefer to watch him on a team more relevant to the upper echelons of the league – and continued to trade or buy out veteran players, ensuring a younger team around the Finnisher.

The Jazz project to be one of the non-postseason teams in the West again, and are younger than they've been since the early days of the Mitchell-Gobert core. Kessler got off to an incredible start this season after a couple of disappointing, injury-hobbled years that left him without a rookie extension entering Year 4. And then Kessler promptly suffered a season-ending shoulder injury, dashing hopes of a true breakout campaign and leaving Utah, if they wanted to be more competitive, with a substantial hole at center. Meanwhile, Markkanen looks as good as ever and the Jazz appear more like the 2022-23 team (decent, competitive) than the 2024-25 team (dreadful).

All this – Kessler's injury, Lauri's value revival, Utah's relative improvement – is leading to the chorus of outsiders to again press for the Jazz to trade Markkanen to compile more assets and ensure another high draft pick for themselves. And it is true that Utah's top two assets right now are their own 2026 pick (the top of the draft looks stacked) and Markkanen. In a league where the draft holds so much power, it's hard to come to any conclusion but this: if you're not competing for a high-end playoff spot, you're usually better off amassing more bites at the glorious apple that is the draft. If you can improve your own bite in the process, all the better.

However, the league has changed a good bit. And the Jazz have changed.