How close is Lauri Markkanen to being traded by the Jazz?

NBA: San Antonio Spurs at Utah Jazz

“I think it’s clear that Lauri Markkanen is a pretty good player. We love him. We’d like to have him around.”

“I think that our objective is to find a player or two and we’re ready to roll. We’re ready to go big game hunting, and that hasn’t happened in the last two years.”

That was Utah Jazz CEO Danny Ainge after the NBA season ended, talking about the franchise’s offseason plans — owner Ryan Smith wanted to be aggressive, not rebuild. So Ainge tried to go big game hunting. The problem? There wasn’t much game to be had — Paul George was the only true free agent game-changer likely to switch teams (LeBron James was never leaving Los Angeles, and after that, it was James Harden or OG Anunoby or DeMar DeRozan). Ainge reportedly tried to trade for Mikal Bridges from Brooklyn, hoping that having him and Markkanen on the roster would tempt George to come to Salt Lake City, but Bridges was traded to the Knicks, then George eventually chose the 76ers.

That’s when teams started calling Ainge about Markkanen (because they looked at the market and realized the Finnish big man was better than anyone else available). Golden State was particularly aggressive. Ainge at least listened, and with it considered a pivot — Utah can’t talk contract extension with Markkanen until Aug. 6, so see if anyone makes a godfather offer he can’t refuse between now and then. Then the Jazz could turn to tanking and rebuilding with two stacked drafts coming up (Utah owes its 2025 first-round pick to Oklahoma City but that is top-10 protected, if the Jazz have one of the five worst records in the league, they will retain their pick; if it doesn’t convey in 2025 the pick is top-eight protected in 2026).

Rumors have been flying around, but how close are the Jazz to trading Markkanen?

Depends on who you ask. NBC Sports spoke to multiple sources and heard a different answer from each one, although things largely fell into two general camps.

One can be summed up by well-connected Utah beat writer Tony Jones of The Athletic, who appeared on Sacramento Sports Talk Radio and said that the Warriors, Kings and Spurs…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/close-lauri-markkanen-being-traded-154322970.html

Author : NBC Sports

Publish date : 2024-07-04 15:43:22

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