Grade the trade pitch: Jazz send Lauri Markkanen to rising West contender

Despite playing on the last year of a very cheap deal, there have been no indications that the Utah Jazz plan to trade Lauri Markkanen unless it's for a king's random. At the same time, keeping Markkanen has only put the Jazz at a crossroads in terms of where they should go next.

The Jazz have a year to decide whether they want to pay good money to keep Markkanen around or sell him off to the highest bidder while they still can. If they choose the latter, Bleacher Report's Grant Hughes proposed a trade that would help the Jazz cash in on Markkanen. Hughes outlined the following swap with the Oklahoma City Thunder

Jazz receive Josh Giddey, Cason Wallace, and three first-round picks from the Thunder in exchange for the Thunder.

Hughes went into great detail explaining why the Thunder would do a deal like that. Primarily because among the Thunder's most glaring vulnerabilities was their lack of big man depth and that acquiring Markkanen would be a good way to use some of their assets.

He delved a little into why the Jazz might consider a trade like this, though not all too much.

"Could Utah ask for more than three of the Thunder's 15 first-rounders in the next seven drafts? Sure. Should OKC consider adding picks to the pile if that's what it takes to get a deal over the finish line? Absolutely!"

There are other factors to the Jazz trading Markkanen than the quantity of first-round picks