Lauri Markkanen is not only back in form this season. To put it bluntly, he’s leveled up. The historic numbers he’s putting up for the Utah Jazz should actually raise the question of whether they’ll even consider trading him. One team makes sense to him: the Portland Trail Blazers. The only problem is that trading him there would leave more questions than answers.
Zach Buckley of Bleacher Report outlined the next trade between the Jazz and Trail Blazers, in which the following would be traded.
Jazz get: Jerami Grant, Scoot Henderson, Kris Murray, a 2028 first-round pick (via ORL) and a 2031 first-round pick (top-10 protected)
Getting Trailblazers: Markkanen
He then explained why the Trail Blazers would do it. Honestly, it seems pretty easy to understand why they want the Finnish one.
“Markkanen could either take center duties in Portland or form a 1A-1B partnership with Most Improved Player candidate Deni Avdija.
“Between those two, Toumani Camara, Jrue Holiday and Donovan Clingan, Portland would be ruthless on defense. Broaden the lens a bit to account for the eventual return of Damian Lillard and more developmental spice for Yang Hansen, and you may have the recipe for top-10 efficiency ranks on both sides,” Buckley wrote.
Markkanen has been so incredibly good this season that it seems unfair that it still probably won’t be enough for the Jazz to make the playoffs. That’s why the prospect of signing him like the Trail Blazers is tempting.
What would they do with Grant?
Grant makes less than Markkanen and his contract expires in fewer years than Markkanen. However, after the start Markkanen has had, it’s fair to say that the Jazz are currently getting a lot more bang for their buck in Markkanen than they are with Grant.
Grant is not a bad player by any means, but he is not a star and never will be. As a starter, he is paid a premium price. He’s actually off to a pretty fantastic start this year in Portland compared to how poorly last year went, but Markkanen is at a whole new level that makes him so easy to trade that now no one knows if that’s what the Jazz will do.
If they did, the team would likely aim higher than Grant as the best player to return in a trade.
If the Jazz gets Scoot, who gets the boot?
Henderson would join a backcourt that already has three promising youngsters: Keyonte George (has also risen in level), Isaiah Collier (he has shown that Utah has seriously missed his playmaking) and Walter Clayton Jr. (the only reason he’s not playing is Collier). The Jazz wouldn’t add someone like Henderson unless they believed he was part of their future core.
And if that were the case, that would mean one of the aforementioned Jazzguards (and possibly more) would have to be traded. What makes it riskier is that Henderson has been a bit more of a project than the Trail Blazers expected. Not to add too many questions here, but would Utah really want to make its slow development their problem?
Is that enough tap capital for Markkanen?
It has been discussed before that any team that wants Markkanen would acquire him in the belief that he would be their final piece of their title puzzle. For a team like, say, Golden State, that would be a good candidate because if Stephen Curry, Jimmy Butler, and Draymond Green all give up, their futures become murkier, making any draft assets the Jazz could potentially acquire all the more valuable.
But Portland? They are on the rise. Sure, they have some vets who aren’t getting any younger, like Grant and Jrue Holiday, but some of their most integral pieces are young, like Deni Avdija, Shaedon Sharpe, and Toumani Camara. Markkanen would only seal their fate as a perennial playoff team. Any draft pick of theirs, with the exception of the aforementioned Magic pick, probably wouldn’t be that good.
Markkanen has reminded the entire association that every whisper that he was over the mound was greatly exaggerated, and then some. It would be great to see that kind of talent play on a winning team like Portland, but it’s hard to see how the Jazz could make a justifiable trade in a situation like this.
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