Lauri Markkanen has given the Utah Jazz every reason to believe he will be back with the vengeance next season, thanks to his EuroBasket dominance. However, if he builds on his EuroBasket play with the Jazz, that could lead to something Jazz fans probably don't want to know: he'll see his name in trade rumors all season long.
While this has been touched on before in recent weeks, Kevin O'Connor delved further into why teams could talk themselves into the Jazz star this season. After praising Markkanen's EuroBasket play, O'Connor did not hold back on what could be to come for him this season.
"I think this dude's in for a big year, and we're going to see him become a trade target. One of the pieces contenders look for and say, 'Oh, he could be our guy to give us a shot.' Will they trade him? Who knows?... but I think we're going to see Lauri Markkanen be involved in trade discussions again after he kind of fell out last year after signing his contract," O'Connor said.
Because it is uncertain whether the Jazz will keep Markkanen as they develop their youth, it will also be concerning to consider what they would receive in return if they opt to trade him, and whether that would be the best long-term course of action.
The Jazz scored pretty big on both Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert when they traded them, and even so, neither Cleveland nor Minnesota should regret trading for either, given the results they've gotten from them as players and the success they've had as a team over the past three years. The Jazz, by contrast, haven't seen much success from those trades.
Utah would have every right to demand a similar price for Markkanen, but even so, would they expect that much different should they hand over a surefire star? While the Jazz have been players on the trade market over the past three years, trading Markkanen isn't as easy as it sounds.
He's not that easy to replace and he could vault plenty of teams to title contention, making any draft assets that would come back for him feel like they have relatively low value. That's why the prospect of trading him is scary.
The one solace to a potential Markkanen trade
If Markkanen gets traded, should he regain his All-Star form, the one thing that Utah can be happy about is that, following so much doubt about whether they overpaid him or not, Markkanen is not on an albatross contract.
No matter how things turn out, the worst-case scenario for the Jazz would be having to swallow such a bad contract whole for a player who is not worth it. Luckily, Markkanen appears to be someone who will be worth every penny, regardless of which team is paying him.
Jazz fans may not want to get rid of Markkanen if he looks like a star again, but at least if they do, they would get some value out of him, which didn't look like the case when the season ended.