The prospect of Lauri Markkanen's future with the Utah Jazz is in question now more than ever. Because the Jazz emphasized their youth more this season, Markkanen's place on the team is only making less and less sense.
However, despite coming off a down year and the Jazz being one of the worst teams in the NBA, Markkanen's feelings towards the Jazz and Utah as a whole are just the same as they were at the start of the season.
While talking with KSL's Ben Anderson, Markkanen made it clear that he still loves playing for Utah.
“I feel like what I did last summer with signing here, that kind of tells you the confidence I have in the organization and the guys we have,” Markkanen told Anderson. “I love being in Utah.”
No one in Utah should have a problem with Markkanen; his sentiment here shows why. If the Jazz were, well, not the worst team in the NBA record-wise, this would further enforce that he should be around for the long haul.
But they were and will likely continue to be.
Because of such, the Jazz in a precarious position particularly with Markkanen, with his flattering words on Utah making it even more difficult.
Markkanen's loyalty makes it harder for the Jazz to trade him
Because Markkanen is almost 28, an All-Star caliber player, and will enter his peak, it doesn't seem like the right move to keep him around with the Jazz planning to get younger. However, the fact remains that Markkanen, an NBA star right square in his prime, has embraced Utah in full warts and all, which has been hard for the Jazz to find for the past two decades.
The best players drafted and developed with the Jazz post-Malone and Stockton have all left, and right square in their prime, too: Donovan Mitchell, Rudy Gobert, Gordon Hayward, Paul Millsap, and Deron Williams all left. Their departures were different, some because Utah themselves thought it was best to part ways.
However, because of how those exits went, having an All-Star who wants to play in Utah, no matter what, has proven to be a rare privilege for the Jazz, especially when the team plans to take its sweet time building a winner.
Keeping Markkanen seems like it would hinder the Jazz's intentions, but also consider that it didn't this season. The Jazz managed to get the best lottery odds possible this season. Much of it stemmed from Markkanen missing a lot of games, but still, his presence did not get in the way of Utah's goals at all.
While the Jazz could trade him, it may not be long before they have a good team again. In fact, Utah getting Cooper Flagg could actually justify them keeping Markkanen to see what they would have in those two.
Ever since Markkanen proved how good he was since coming to Utah, the Jazz have signaled that they wanted to build the best team around him. Becoming the NBA's worst team would seem to go against those plans, but this season may very well be the exception to the rule.
The Jazz trading Markkanen would make sense, but him continuing to vocalize his attachment to the franchise would not make it easy.