Lauri Markkanen hasn't just returned to form this season. To put it bluntly, he's leveled up. The historic numbers he's putting up with the Utah Jazz really should make one question if they will even consider trading him. One team makes plenty of sense for him: the Portland Trail Blazers. The only problem is that trading him there would come with more questions than answers.
Bleacher Report's Zach Buckley outlined the following trade between the Jazz and Trail Blazers in which the following would be swapped.
Jazz get: Jerami Grant, Scoot Henderson, Kris Murray, a 2028 first-round pick (via ORL) and a 2031 first-round pick (top-10 protected)
Trail Blazers get: Markkanen
He then explained why the Trail Blazers would do it. In all honesty, it seems pretty easy to understand why they would want the Finnisher.
"Markkanen could either assume focal-point duties in Portland or form a 1A-1B partnership with Most Improved Player candidate Deni Avdija.
"Between those two, Toumani Camara, Jrue Holiday and Donovan Clingan, Portland would be ferocious on defense. Widen the lens a bit to account for Damian Lillard's eventual return and more developmental seasoning for Yang Hansen, and you might have the recipe for top-10 efficiency ranks on both ends," Buckley wrote.
Markkanen has been so unbelievably good this season that it seems unfair it likely still won't be enough for the Jazz to make the playoffs, which is why the prospect of putting him on like the Trail Blazers is tantalizing.
What would they do with Grant?
Grant makes less than Markkanen does and his contract runs out in fewer years than Markkanen does. However, following the start Markkanen has had, it's fair to say that the Jazz currently get a lot more bang for their buck in Markkanen than they would with Grant.
Grant's not a bad player by any means, but he is not and never will be a star and gets paid a premium price as a starter. He's actually having a pretty fantastic start in Portland this year compared to how poorly last year went, but Markkanen is in a whole new level that makes him so easy to trade to the point that now no one knows if that's what the Jazz will do.
If they did, the team would probably aim higher than Grant as the best player coming back in a trade.
If the Jazz get Scoot, who gets the boot?
Henderson would join a backcourt that has three promising youngsters already: Keyonte George (has also leveled up), Isaiah Collier (he's shown that Utah has badly missed his playmaking), and Walter Clayton Jr. (the only reason he's not playing is Collier). The Jazz wouldn't add someone like Henderson unless they believed he was part of their future core.
And if that were the case, that means that one of the aforementioned Jazz guards (and potentially more) would have to be traded. Making it riskier is that Henderson's been a bit more of a project than the Trail Blazers anticipated. Not to add too many questions here but would Utah really want to make his slow development their problem?
Is that satisfactory draft capital for Markkanen?
It's been discussed before that any team that wants Markkanen would acquire him believing he would be their last piece of their title puzzle. For a team like, say Golden State, that would be a good suitor because when Stephen Curry, Jimmy Butler, and Draymond Green all call it quits, their future gets murkier, making any draft assets the Jazz would get potentially all the more valuable.
But Portland? They're on the rise. Sure they have some vets that aren't getting any younger like Grant and Jrue Holiday, but some of their most integral pieces are young, like Deni Avdija, Shaedon Sharpe, and Toumani Camara. Markkanen would only seal their fate as a perennial playoff team. Any draft asset from them, excluding that aforementioned Magic pick, would likely not be too good.
Markkanen has reminded the entire association that any whispers about him being over the hill were greatly exaggerated and then some. It would be great to see that kind of talent play on a winning team like Portland, but it's difficult to see how the Jazz could make a justifiable trade in a situation like that.