The Utah Jazz are sitting at 5-11 and 12th in the western conference along with 23rd overall in the league. Markkanen however has been having a great year. 23.7 ppg on 48.4 field goal shooting.
Instead of trading him for young talent and picks, would it be smart for the Jazz to draft a top player in the draft and keep Markkanen all at the same time?
If they trade him, then they basically have to start all over but they could always just keep him and go for a top 5 pick regardless if the Jazz wanted to. The playoffs seem out of reach for Utah this year.
Pretty sure the Jazz’s 1st round pick this year is only top 10 protected. A lot of discussion last year was about how they’d handle this season because of that pick. The consensus was to just play for the playoffs and don’t worry about it. Now it definitely feels like we want to keep that pick. I suspect a fire sale.
To answer OP’s question. I think the Jazz keep Lauri this season.
Doesn’t the pick convey to an unprotected 2025 one on a much superior draft if they don’t lose it this year?