The Utah Jazz already showed this summer that nothing is off the table, and that’s what makes any Lauri Markkanen discussion worth taking seriously.
Bleacher Report’s Andy Bailey floated a deal that would send Markkanen to Golden State and give Utah a massive haul in return: Jimmy Butler, Yaxel Lendeborg and first-round picks in 2028, 2030 and 2032.
It’s the kind of offer that forces a real question. If the Jazz were willing to move Walker Kessler to a conference rival because the return was rich enough, would they do the same with Markkanen if the price climbed even higher?
That Kessler deal changed the way Utah’s summer looks. Nobody expected him to be the one who moved, and he certainly wasn’t just handed away. The Lakers paid a premium for a talented player who had never been part of a good team and was coming off an injury-plagued season.
Markkanen is a different level of asset, and Utah likely values him even more than it did Kessler. So if another team wants him, it would have to meet Danny Ainge’s standard: make the other side pay.
Golden State is at least an intriguing candidate in that scenario. The Warriors are the NBA’s oldest team and they didn’t make the playoffs.
They’re also moving toward the end of the Stephen Curry era, and they just missed out on what might have been the final LeBron James sweepstakes. That kind of situation can make a front office far more aggressive than it was before.
Markkanen would obviously help, but the question is how much he would really cover for a roster that’s trending downward. There’s also the cost of the trade itself. A move like this would strip Golden State of the draft capital it would need to chase another star later, leaving it boxed in at a time when first-round picks matter more than ever because of the flattened odds.
From Utah’s side, this is the kind of proposal that can be read two ways. Trading Markkanen would say the Jazz trust the young talent already in place to carry the rebuild. Keeping him would say they believe he can be one of the best players on their next playoff team.
That’s the real tension here. Ainge has a reputation for squeezing value out of every deal, and this one fits that mold. But whether the Jazz would actually pull the trigger depends on which direction they think gives them the best path forward.
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