Lauri Markkanen is a good basketball player on any team — but he's at his best when he can be set up regularly by other players. During his time with the Jazz, he's been assisted on over 75 percent of his made baskets (68 percent of his 2-pointers are assisted, and 96 percent of his 3-pointers.) That's not really a knock on Markkanen — all players are better when they receive good passes — but it's definitely noteworthy, especially with the current roster the Jazz will roll out in 2025-26, which is a roster bereft of high-level passers. Markkanen, for all his strengths, isn't going to create a ton of offense on his own. So, in short, the best way to maximize Lauri Markkanen might be to trade him to a team that can feed him the ball better. The best version of Lauri Markkanen will not be able to exist on the current iteration of the Utah Jazz.
In Markkanen's three seasons with the team, there's a direct correlation between his personal numbers and the roster around him. In his first two seasons, the Jazz went 68-96. That's not particularly good, of course, but it's at least close to competitive. The Jazz had a roster (mostly) full of NBA talent. Last season, the Jazz went 17-65 in an attempt to fully bottom out and be awarded the chance to draft Cooper Flagg. I needn't remind you how that worked out. But Flagg aside, last year also showed that Lauri Markkanen is a much better player when he is surrounded by good talent.
If the plan is to roll out the tank for the next few seasons (and judging by the current roster, that is the plan) and we know that Markkanen is considerably better when he's surrounded by proven NBA players... what's the point of keeping him on the roster? His trade value will continue to decrease, as will his production, and in that situation, nobody wins. This should probably be a bit of a wake-up call for the Jazz: not trading Markkanen and hoping he bounces back to his 2022-23 numbers would only make sense if this team makes large roster changes quickly.
The Jazz' roster will make it hard for Markkanen to reach that level again
Jazz fans watched Lauri Markkanen break out in 2022-23, making his first All-Star appearance and winning NBA Most Improved Player. The following year, Markkanen's numbers dropped a tad, but he was still highly productive (23.2 points per game, 39.9% from 3-point range). Last year, those numbers dropped more than a tad, as Markkanen's counting stats and efficiency both took a huge hit.
The Jazz are about to pay superstar money (his extension was 5-year, $238 million) for a player not providing superstar production — not Lauri's fault, for the record, I'm always in favor of players getting their money — but that does make him far more difficult to trade. His numbers continuing to decline would make him harder to trade as well, obviously, and based on past trends, they might.