Lauri Markkanen has given the Utah Jazz good reason to believe that trading him would be the wrong choice. Because he's on a rebuilding team like the Jazz, there will always be trade proposals centering around him. The most recent one would send him to a team that's been brought up before as a Markkanen destination: the Philadelphia 76ers.
Bleacher Report's Grant Hughes outlined a trade between the Jazz and Sixers in which the following would happen.
Sixers receive: Markkanen
Jazz receive: Paul Georges, 2028 Los Angeles Clippers
Hughes explained why the Jazz would agree to a trade like this.
"Utah is hoarding other teams' future firsts and might be amenable to snaring this one along with several smaller contracts in exchange for Markkanen. Though the Finnish forward has had his own struggles staying on the floor of late, his movement shooting and efficient scoring would make him a fascinating addition to the Embiid-Tyrese Maxey combo."
This was brought up before around draft time. The Jazz had the opportunity to move up in the draft by using Markkanen to get a higher pick, but that never went anywhere, primarily because of how bad George looked in Philadelphia, and that pick three through five looked interchangeable.
But now? It seems a little drastic because getting only one pick out of Markkanen, which inheriting the declining player on an albatross, seems like a gross overpay. Maybe even after the draft happened, the Jazz would consider but another factor is at play.
Lauri Markkanen's EuroBasket dominance should raise his trade value
Besides him playing for a young team that has no intentions of winning many games this season, Markkanen has also been floated in trade ideas because of his contract being as expensive as it is while coming off a lackluster overall performance.
However, his resurgence during EuroBasket is a pretty good indication that Markkanen will bounce back this season. Even if Utah planned to trade him anyway, acquiring a terrible deal with George and only getting one draft asset for their troubles is too little of a return.
So while Utah may trade Markkanen sometime down the line, now doesn't seem like the right time, and it certainly doesn't seem like they would give him up to the Sixers. Utah would be doing Philadelphia a few too many favors in a trade like this.
The irony is, if Utah is still far and away from playoff contention a year or so from now, there is a world where perhaps they would be willing to take George's deal along with that Clippers pick and trade Markkanen, but not in the same deal.