Not enough attention is being directed at how good a place the Utah Jazz are in right now. They have so much talent on the roster that they have a fantastic present and an exciting future. A lot of that has to do with Lauri Markkanen and Ace Bailey, i.e., a current NBA star paired up with a future NBA star.
It's awesome that Utah will have those two for the next three years, but there is a potential problem: they won't be able to keep both of them long-term.
Bleacher Report's Greg Swartz hinted at this when discussing his grades for every NBA team's rookie class (Utah got an A-, and rightfully so).
"The Jazz have to make sure they keep the runway open for their young star (Bailey), even if it means exploring Lauri Markkanen trades this summer."
For the record, Utah's absolutely not going to do that unless it is their best option, and that is extremely unlikely because they have no reason to break something up when they haven't even seen what they look like together on a team with all the makings of a playoff contender.
So yeah, messing with a tandem like those two now is stupid. However, Bailey's rookie contract will eventually expire, which will likely leave Utah with a tough decision: keep Markkanen or Bailey. If the latter continues to look like a franchise player in the making, they can't keep both.
Utah knows what it has in Markkanen, but not with Bailey
The Jazz have had Markkanen for four years now, where he's proven he's a star. In fact, after he had his worst season with the Jazz, he proved that he is still very much the threat he was when he first became a Jazzman. Plus, there's no reason to believe he won't stay that way as the Jazz embark on their best season in years.
Bailey is different, though. He had the most exciting rookie season Utah has seen since Donovan Mitchell. Once the team benched their win-now players, they gave Bailey the keys, and he killed it as their guy. So much so that there's no telling what his ceiling is as a player.
For how good Markkanen is, he rounds out as a star. Someone who, at best, is a top-20, maybe top-15 player. He's not a superstar though, and there's a nonzero chance that Bailey can become that.
Okay, great, so they can have both of those players at the same time, one may say, and it's true. But for how long? They can't keep everyone, especially with those painfully harsh tax aprons. If Bailey pans out to be a franchise player that Utah cannot afford to slip through their fingers, they may have to bite the bullet and trade Markkanen to let their prized prospect run the show.
This has been brought up before, as Utah also has the chance to get the No. 1 pick in a loaded draft. Whether they win or not, they have no reason to confront this now, but they must keep it in mind over the next three years.
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