The Utah Jazz discussed trading Lauri Markkanen to the Golden State Warriors almost a year and a half ago, but it never went anywhere, and shortly afterward, Markkanen signed a mega extension with the Jazz. It came out today why the Warriors didn't pull the trigger on a Markkanen trade: Draymond Green told them not to.
Per ESPN's Anthony Slater, Green told them not to acquire Markkanen because of what Utah was asking for him.
"Green even told Dunleavy and controlling owner Joe Lacob the summer prior not to green-light a trade for Lauri Markkanen, considering the Utah Jazz were asking for all the draft picks and young players," Slater reported.
Green himself told Slater that it had nothing to do with Markkanen, even praising the Jazz star in the process. Instead, it was something else.
"I'm a big fan of [Markkanen's] game," Green told Slater. "But I think if you want to do something so huge you better be certain that this is the move. You usually don't win those things against Danny Ainge. I look at history."
At the time, Markkanen was on the league's most team-friendly contract, so it would not have taken that much contract-wise to make a deal. Green brought up last year that Ainge is someone teams shouldn't get into trade negotiations with, but the fact that he believed that so strongly that he advised Golden State not to trade for Markkanen because of it is new.
More than that, such a decision is so stupid because Markkanen could have been the last piece for the Warriors to win another title while their window was still open, and it looks even worse in hindsight because the possibility of the team adding both him and Jimmy Butler would have made them feel confident in a playoff series against Oklahoma City or Denver.
But because Ainge asks for the farm, the Warriors decided not to exponentially help their chances of winning banner No. 5 (and possibly) more with Curry and Green? It's not guaranteed that they would have won a title with Markkanen, but they would have been better.
Ainge may get value for his guys, but the teams he's traded with shouldn't have any regrets
Green isn't wrong about how demanding Ainge can be, but where he's mistaken is thinking that everyone he deals with gets ripped off. That has happened before, but not recently. Minnesota and Cleveland gave pretty much every last asset they could for Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell, respectively.
They haven't gotten a title following those trades, but if asked whether they would make those deals again in hindsight, they would answer in the affirmative without thinking twice. The Warriors would have been at more risk of giving the Jazz golden assets down the line than the Timberwolves or Cavaliers were, but would they have cared if it meant more titles?
Markkanen proved last night that he's still very much the same star he has been for Utah that he was in his first two years as a Jazzman. Draymond and the Warriors can feel secure about having their long-term assets, but they may feel regret knowing their dynasty could have extended further in the 2020s had they not been so afraid to deal with Trader Dan...