The Utah Jazz will likely never get their hands on Luka Doncic now that he's with the Lakers for the long haul. The real shame is that, like pretty much every other NBA team in the league, if they had known he was available, they probably would have tried everything in their power to get him.
Making it more painful is the knowledge that the Jazz got involved in the Doncic trade without explicitly knowing that they were involved until it was too late. Over two months later, the Luka trade still baffles everyone as to why the Mavericks agreed to it.
Even weirder was that the Mavericks kept Doncic's trade availability on the down-low before the trade was announced. If they had made it clear that Doncic was available, almost every single NBA team, including the Jazz, would have lined up to pitch their trade for him.
ESPN's Bobby Marks wrote an article detailing every team's hypothetical trade package for Doncic. In the Jazz's case, their projected deal for Doncic would have looked like the following per Marks.
John Collins, Isaiah Collier, Taylor Hendricks, two 2027 first-round picks (most favorable of Cleveland, Minnesota, and Utah), and 2029 first-round pick (most favorable of Cleveland, Minnesota; if 6-30, and Utah).
Marks also noted that Lauri Markkanen couldn't be included because he wasn't trade-eligible this season. However, it'd be hard to think that Utah would have included Markkanen in the trade package anyway if they were trying to get Doncic.
In fact, Markkanen would be why Utah would have likely tried to trade everything they could to get Doncic if the opportunity presented itself to them. Ever since Markkanen evolved into an All-Star, the narrative about him has been that he's an excellent player but just not a contender's best player. More specifically, he can be the guy a contender puts next to their best player as a second-in-command.
Doncic would have been that guy. He and Markkanen would have been amazing together as Doncic's gravity as a scorer and playmaker would have been strong enough to give Markkanen the room to thrive as a secondary shotmaker, floor-spacer, and lob threat.
Sure, more pieces would have had to be added to make the Jazz a contender, but Utah would have had their best one-two punch since Stockton-Malone. Doncic and Markkanen would make for one amazing duo and the foundation of a wonderful new era.
But everyone knows that such a pairing won't happen in Utah now. If the fact that Doncic and Markkanen never becoming Jazzmen together isn't sad enough, a trade package such as this one also harps on a sad reality about Markkanen and the Jazz.
Doncic was the player the Jazz's front office had been looking for
Part of the reason the Jazz never quite picked a direction for the previous two years before this season was that they wanted to build a playoff team around Markkanen. During the last two offseasons, they tried in vain to get All-Star players to put next to Markkanen, the most recent being Brandon Ingram.
Doncic would have blown all of their previous targets out of the water. The Jazz didn't choose wrong when they opted to go for the rebuild, but acquiring Doncic would have given them a clear foundation of a winner, and they wouldn't have had to play the long game. He is one of the few players who changes a franchise's fortunes by himself.
Why the Jazz have failed to build a better team around Markkanen and why Doncic isn't on the team are for reasons that are out of Utah's control. They absolutely tried to capitalize on the Markkanen era and came up short.
Because the opportunities to improve the team dried up, the Jazz will likely look into Markkanen's trade market this offseason. That may not have been an issue if they had known the Mavericks were trying to get rid of Luka Doncic.