Last we checked, the Utah Jazz's current mindset on Lauri Markkanen is that he will be on their next playoff team, no matter how long it takes. While it's clear that the Jazz don't want to give up on Markkanen, what's also been clear is that, given their current situation, they probably regret how they've handled this situation, to the extent that not trading him is their biggest recent regret.
ESPN's Zach Kram explained why he sees the Jazz's decision not to trade Markkanen as the biggest regret made by the team.
"Three years into their rebuild following the Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert trades, the Jazz are still cellar dwellers, with by far the worst roster in the Western Conference. It's unclear whether Markkanen, now 28, still makes sense in Utah, given the team's protracted timeline.
"The problem is he had much more trade value two years ago, after he broke out and won Most Improved Player, than he does now after signing a big new contract and declining from his short-lived All-Star level. Markkanen averaged 26 points per game on 50% shooting in 2022-23 but fell to 19 points on 42% shooting last season," Kram wrote.
Markkanen was once on arguably the NBA's best contract, and last year, it was becoming clearer that Utah was going younger, but they elected to keep Markkanen. He could flip this narrative this coming season, but for now, in hindsight, extending him does not look like a good idea.
Two years ago, he was the golden boy of Salt Lake City, but he's coming off his worst season as a Jazzman, and with the Jazz tanking next season, the odds of him making another All-Star team won't be good - coaches tend to not send players from bad teams to the All-Star game unless they are proven superstars.
For the time being, Utah will only continue to embrace Markkanen, but everyone will continue to wonder for how long. The Jazz have already admitted to mistakes this offseason, such as cutting Jordan Clarkson straight after it became clear before he signed his extension that doing so was not a wise decision.
The fact of the matter is, even if Utah comes to regret this, it's not like this was a crippling mistake. The reasoning behind it was pretty sound in the sense that the Jazz did not believe a trade would adequately replace his value, given what he had shown for the last two seasons.
It was definitely a little questionable, and thus far, in hindsight, this decision does look bad. Utah evidently wants to play the long-game here, so it will be on both them and Markkanen to prove this strategy is correct.
This take could look incredibly foolish or genius not too long from now
As it stands, the Jazz have Markkanen under contract for four more years, during which he will transition from his late 20s to his early 30s. Utah has until then to see if its youth movement takes off. Next season, the Jazz are expected to be bad, but the upside is, because the 2026 draft class is expected to be generational (and 2027) won't be, that should be the last year Utah is terrible by design.
If and when they start trying to win games, then everyone will get to see whether keeping Markkanen truly was a mistake on Utah's behalf. But for now, the return on investment since the extension has not been good, though anyone who has been watching would say that's not Markkanen's fault.