The Utah Jazz suffered their fourth consecutive loss against the Kings, which still makes their win column a goose egg on the season. Utah may very well still be understandably reeling from Taylor Hendricks' season-ending injury, but there was another takeaway.
With four seconds to go in the first half, the Jazz subbed out Lauri Markkanen for Kyle Filipowski, and the former did not come back for the rest of the game. The Athletic's Tony Jones reported why Markkanen was absent.
Lauri Markkanen has lower back spasms and will not return to this one
— Tony Jones (@Tjonesonthenba) October 30, 2024
The Jazz were down by 10 at half, wound up losing by 17, and were down by 20-plus for a good chunk of the second half. Markkanen's absence had a lot do with how the Kings pulled away. It shows how important Markkanen is to the Jazz, but it also may signify something else.
The Jazz may rest Markkanen at every opportunity they can
No one's accusing the Jazz of making this injury up. Markkanen probably is hurt, but the question is, is he really that hurt that he can't play period?
Knowing that the Jazz have put their name in the hat for Cooper Flagg, Markkanen, despite how good he is, might be rested to boost the Jazz's chances of getting the No. 1 pick in the 2025 NBA Draft.
Many have questioned why the Jazz elected to keep and re-sign Markkanen to a very expensive extension. The answer is pretty simple: they want to have it both ways. They want someone who could be their next franchise cornerstone who could be an MVP someday, and a huge piece of their championship puzzle ready to contribute now.
There's nothing with that strategy at all because the Jazz can afford to have two timelines since Markkanen will be with the team for the foreseeable future and they have plenty of young talent to develop right beside him. The only downside is that this may happen more often, which means more painful losses will come in the immediate future.
This is all unfamiliar territory for the Jazz because they haven't truly committed to the tank all too often. The last time they did was 10 years ago when they tanked for Dante Exum. That experience should teach the Jazz that tanking, while not the worst idea, doesn't guarantee future success.
It also requires drafting and developing the right players. Resting Markkanen makes sense for the Jazz knowing their priorities, but they have to make sure that they're not wasting their time and his primse by doing so.