The J-Notes
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3 Utah Jazz free agent targets with ties to Lauri Markkanen

By Jack Simone

Max Strus of the Miami Heat and Lauri Markkanen of the Utah Jazz.
Max Strus of the Miami Heat and Lauri Markkanen of the Utah Jazz. /
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Utah Jazz target: Edon Maxhuni of the Finnish National Team (middle).
Utah Jazz target: Edon Maxhuni of the Finnish National Team (middle). /

Edon Maxhuni

Who?

That’s the response most people should deliver at the time of reading this. Edon Maxhuni has never stepped foot in the NBA, so why would the Utah Jazz consider signing him?

Well, Lauri Markkanen, of course.

Markkanen and Maxhuni played with each other on the Finnish National Team. At this past summer’s EuroBasket, he averaged the third-most minutes on the team.

The 6-foot-2 guard is only 25 years old and would give the Jazz some depth at that position, which is needed considering they shipped off Mike Conley at this year’s trade deadline.

Currently, Maxhuni plays for Hakro Merlins Crailsheim, a team in the Basketball Bundesliga in Germany. And thus far, he’s put together a pretty solid season.

Across three different competitions with the team, Maxhuni has appeared in 45 games and played 22.1 minutes per contest. He’s averaged 12.7 points on 43.0% shooting from the field and 37.7% shooting from distance, along with 1.3 rebounds and 3.8 assists per game.

Obviously, there’s a sense of unknown when signing a player from overseas, but the Jazz took that risk last season when they brought in Simone Fontecchio. Why not take a chance on one of Markkanen’s Finnish teammates?