Ever since Lauri Markkanen exploded onto the scene in 2022-2023, culminating in his Most Improved Player award, the NBA mediasphere wants one thing: for the Utah Jazz to trade Lauri Markkanen.

I have officially lost contain on my feelings about this topic.

Look, I’m not dense: Markkanen is great, Utah is currently not. It’s fun for fans to think how he can bolster contending teams at critical roster-building junctures of the season.

We’re not at one of those junctures! Basketball punditry continues to crudely misread the situation from both Lauri’s and Utah’s perspectives, which usually elicits a small eyeroll from me. But right now, teams are simply shoring up their training camp rosters with Exhibit 10 players like Fanbo Zeng and Steven Crowl. A super fun Eurobasket just finished and we are all looking forward to the captivating on-court product for literally every team—including the bad ones before intrigue and potential surprise wane away to, well, the opposite of that.

So I was unusually agitated that out of seemingly nowhere we get Michael Pina writing a whole piece begging the Detroit Pistons to make an offer for Markkanen, and Zach Lowe and Rob Mahoney derailing an entire podcast segment to plead with Utah and the NBA to get Markkanen on a different team. Why are we doing this?

They are, of course, not the only ones who have insisted upon this over the past three years. But the timing of these jabs has forced me to correct some misperceptions that have plagued this point of discussion for years. The nonstop din of petitions that Utah trade Markkanen is based on three ideas that just aren’t true, or, at the very least, should be very far from assumed truths:

Idea #1: Lauri Markkanen doesn’t, or shouldn’t, want to be in Utah

First of all, Markkanen loves Utah and has stated that several times. He hasn't asked out. He likes very Utah-coded activities like disc golf and fishing. He seemingly prefers to keep his family life private and the quieter world of Utah affords more of that. It is rare to have a great player buy into what Utah is, rather than what it isn’t.

He also signed his 5-year extension knowing the patience that would be involved in rebuilding this team. Markkanen also purposely delayed signing the extension so he couldn’t be traded for an entire season! Do we really think he’s aghast that the team isn’t ready to compete? He also certainly didn’t need to sign for the full five years, and players in his position often seek to get back onto the free agent market sooner by taking shorter deals or grabbing a player option in exchange for less money in the short term. Will Hardy was the coach that drew out his All-Star potential and there is firm trust between them that he can get back to that status. Markkanen surely knows that jumping to a new spot isn’t going to be some guarantee that the new situation will be better.

Any review of commentary around this will include some version of the question: “Why would Markkanen want to waste his prime on a bad team?” Is it so insane that the dude simply likes where he works, and trusts the coaches and front office that believed in him from the jump? Perhaps Markkanen, gasp, agrees with the next-stage vision of the club that includes him? A good culture fit, organizational confidence, and a fat 9-figure extension can go a long way, and it has with Markkanen.

I like Nate Duncan’s phrase that the Jazz probably “bought his complicity” with way more money than any other team would give him just to ride it out for a couple years while they add talent. Last season’s minute manipulation and bullshit basketball was stupid and soul-crushing, but players are happier if you are at least trying to put your best team on the floor every night, which Utah will do this year. To that end, I could see him getting itchy to leave if next year—not this year—Utah doesn’t have a .500 team on an upward trajectory. We’re not there yet!

We are constantly insisting that established great players must be on great teams. Mahoney went as far to say he “hopes” Lauri isn’t on the Jazz for much longer, which just really irks me, man — but Utah can get this ship righted way sooner than people seem to think.

Idea #2: A bad team like Utah has no business keeping a good, young veteran like Lauri Markkanen

Armchair GMs constantly frame one way for teams like Utah to rebuild: burn the whole effing thing down and rise up from the ashes with draft picks. As much as they chide Sam Hinkie for The Process, similar paths seem to be the only option to them, or else you are eternally the Chicago Bulls.

Utah already burnt it down three years ago (and even more since) and they're not remotely good(*). That part is already done, with or without Lauri Markkanen on the roster! It’s not like trading Markkanen allows them to be... worse? Even if he plays 82 games, Utah is keeping that top-8 protected first round pick they owe to Oklahoma City in 2026 simply because the rest of the roster is so young (or is Literally Jusuf Nurkic). But they have some legit talented pieces that have a reasonable chance of hitting pretty soon! And the trajectory of those players should be boosted if they have a competent structure of Actual NBA Players around them; it can be very hard to evaluate young players if they are surrounded by garbage. But if they can’t figure out how to operate around Lauri Markkanen and Walker Kessler? Immediate red flags and you can move on quicker to other talent.

Let’s say Ace Bailey shows real All-Star upside in his rookie season (which I firmly believe in, if his first impressions are any indication) and Kessler continues to be a real impact player. And pick two or three of (deep breath) Brice Sensabaugh, Taylor Hendricks, Walt Clayton Jr., Keyonte George, Isaiah Collier, and Kyle Filipowski to show they can be okay starters or helpful every-night rotation players on a good team. This is an above-median outcome, but is entirely reasonable!

It sure would be a lot better and faster for that youthful core to get to playoff contention if Utah, you know, had Markkanen on the team than if you had a couple draft picks that, in 4-6 years, could be as good as Lauri Markkanen. Those draft picks could even be a boat!

That’s what is the most maddening to me about the perception of the Jazz. Markkanen isn’t helping them win too many games to risk their draft position. To get back into the playoffs, Utah will need a great player or two. Why the hell would they think they could more solidly meet that goal with some middling firsts (because any team acquiring Markkanen will be a good team) that need several years of development, rather than the great player they already have? This is not a real problem, just wishcasting from people who think it should be illegal for an All-Star player to play for a developing team(**).

Idea #3: Utah is actively shopping Lauri Markkanen to the highest bidder

Danny Ainge and Justin Zanik have always been willing to pick up the phone and listen. It’s how the Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell trades got done, and it is absolutely why Utah was willing to see what Mike Dunleavy and Golden State Warriors would come up with in Markkanen trade talks last summer. (Not much, as it turns out!)

But say it with me, slowly: picking up the phone and listening to offers is not the same as canvassing the league and taking the best offer you get.

Just check out this framing from Pina’s piece(***):

A “sweepstakes”?! What is this, the (now-bankrupt) Publisher’s Clearing House?! This isn’t a damn silent auction where some non-Utah team is guaranteed to get Markkanen. This non-fact is unfortunately boosted by the general belief in the points above that, well, of course Utah has to get rid of Markkanen, and of course Markkanen wants to leave, so of course they will offload him for the best possible offer. Three wrongs don’t make a right here.

All signs point to Utah being just fine seeing what they can build with Lauri already in the tent. Markkanen’s contract is also a complete non-issue for the Jazz, as their young roster is cheap and pending extensions for Kessler, etc. over the next couple years are unlikely to cripple Utah’s flexibility. Claiming that Utah ‘blew the situation’ with the extension — as Lowe said — only holds water if the only point of Utah having Markkanen on the team is to trade him, which I’ve emphatically laid out as reductive bullshit. We have to be smarter than this and invite more nuance to this discussion.

Lowe, as eternally plugged in as he is, missed the mark when he said he “can’t imagine a scenario where Lauri Markkanen is on the Jazz in a year." Utah wants Markkanen on the team for very valid, helpful reasons, and Markkanen wants to be in Utah. Markkanen will stay a Jazzman this season unless a truly transformative offer comes in, and not a moment sooner.

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(*Since we’re implicating The Ringer twice here, allow me a Bill Simmons-style footnote: Utah keeps getting accused of waffling around aimlessly because of the zero-cost John Collins acquisition. It wasn’t some grand gesture that signaled Utah was immediately trying to compete for a playoff spot. It was just free talent that Utah was uniquely positioned to afford given Collins’ bloated contract. It offered a chance to tinker around the idea of a productive team ahead of the not-very-good 2024 draft, where the difference between the 1st and 10th picks was minimal. That’s it! End of story! Didn’t affect them at all!)

(** Compare this to baseball, where it genuinely is maddening to see amazing players on teams that are actively trying to never win. Not just in a development phase, but have reverse incentive to ever try, like Paul Skenes on the Pirates. The Utah Jazz are trying to get good!)

(*** It is always necessary to mention that the author likely isn’t the headline writer, and headlines are meant to provoke and grab clicks, but it’s still wrong framing!)

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