3 pros and 3 cons for extending Lauri Markkanen now

3. Pro : You have more time to build the roster around him

The Utah Jazz would be wise to get Lauri Markkanen under contract as fast as possible so that they can start building around him. He should be the centerpiece of the team and every player the team gets from here on out should be acquired with the idea that he'll help hide Markkanen's flaws and help highlight his strengths.

This may mean you have him play more down in the low post as a more natural power forward, which means a new small forward is in order, or you may finally be done watching John Collins play defense and opt to find a new power forward while you keep Markkanen at the three. Regardless, changes would come and the hope is that they would be made with the idea of helping Markkanen lead the charge.

3. Con: It becomes harder to build a roster with superstar salaries

Firstly, there's always the concern that Markkanen may not be able to lead a team as the number one, that's fair, but only one way to find out. What we're going to focus on is the contract size itself. To lock up Markkanen you're going to pay more than $35 million per year for sure. Maybe even higher. When you start giving that much money to one player, you start making it harder to build a roster around them.

That's always the concern. Guys start to become expendable and then you have a musical chair of sorts of rotational guys who come in and out every season, making it harder to maintain any sort of chemistry. It's the trade off to signing a major contract like this, and it makes winning so much harder.