Jazz star may now have played his last game for the franchise

The Utah Jazz are pulling the plug on some of their players. With the release of their latest injury updates, Cody Williams is now out for the season, John Collins is likely out for the season, and Lauri Markkanen appears to have played his last game of the season.

People can come up with their conclusions from all of this. The timing is pretty convenient given that New Orleans just shut down Zion Williamson and CJ McCollum for the season, hence hoping to add to their lottery odds. It would make sense that the Jazz are doing the same for the exact same reason.

Anyway, the only shocker from this is Williams, given that he's young and the Jazz want to develop their young talent, but oh well. Collins and Markkanen are not shocking at all. What could be telling from this is that Markkanen may have played his last game with the Jazz.

Markkanen is trade-eligible this summer

For what it's worth, it's not like Utah would want Markkanen off the team for anything he's done. He's shown his loyalty, and him finding himself with the Jazz has been a great story to follow for the past three seasons. But if there's anything this season has shown, it's that the writing is on the wall for Markkanen.

When Markkanen surprised the entire NBA world with his All-Star and Most Improved Player campaign back in 2023, it gave the Jazz options. To be fair, the Jazz genuinely tried to build a good team around.

They tried to add Kristaps Porzingis, Jrue Holiday, and Brandon Ingram over the past two years, but circumstances got in their way. In that time, the Jazz have gotten steadily worse to the point where they picked a lane. While rebuilding is their best option, doing so also means Markkanen's place on the team makes no sense.

He's entering his prime and has no use on a team like the Jazz, who are steadily getting younger. It is tantalizing to think of Markkanen playing next to Cooper Flagg, but nobody knows if that will be the case until the NBA lottery happens.

If it does, no one knows how good Flagg will be immediately. That's not aimed to doubt what Flagg is capable of because he is a sure thing, but are the Jazz really willing to take a few years of Markkanen's prime while Flagg gradually becomes the franchise player many believe he will be?

While the Jazz have signaled that they are in a rebuilding phase, the last step in truly embracing that fully is trading Markkanen. They could try to roll it back with their current roster, but with their outlook next year looking like they're going to tank again, it's not fair to have Markkanen spend what should be the top of his game watching from the sideline while his team loses.

He's been a great story with the Jazz, and there is a lot of sentiment regarding trading him away, but he can be an even better story doing what he does for a contender. The Jazz could be a contender if they play their cards right over the next decade, but that shouldn't come at the cost of wasting Markkanen's prime.