A lot of the offseason chatter around Utah has centered on what comes next, but Lauri Markkanen still deserves to be at the front of the conversation. He’s the franchise player the Jazz found out of nowhere, the one who stuck through the long rebuild, and he’s going to have a massive say in how far this team goes this season.
What gets lost sometimes is just how dangerous Markkanen can be when he’s allowed to run free. Jazz fans already know. The rest of the league got a glimpse at the start of last season, and it was loud enough to make a point.
Locked on Jazz’s David Locke highlighted it this way:
"Lot of Lauri talk on this platform today.
Quck reminder. First 14 games of the last year he shot 49% FG, 39% 3pt, 89% FT and scored 31 pts per game and was playing so hard people were legitimately concerned he would hurt himself."
That stretch wasn’t just about the box score, either. The film backed it up. Markkanen looked like a player carrying real force, not someone piling up empty production.
The numbers around him were just as sharp. Per NBA.com, Utah posted a plus-13.4 net rating with Markkanen during those first 14 games. The Jazz were minus-1.4 with him on the floor and minus-14.8 when he sat.
That’s the clearest kind of evidence for why Utah eventually shut him down to help the tank. He was simply too good for a team that needed to lose. A 5-9 start was already rough, and the Jazz had to make sure things got worse.
Walker Kessler going down five games into the season also played into that early slide.
Now Markkanen gets another chance to show the full version of himself. He had a strong season when Utah actually let him play, and the only reason he didn’t draw even more All-Star attention was the tank. This time, the setup should be different.
Utah won’t be holding him back now, and the roster around him is supposed to be better on paper. Kessler’s absence lowers the ceiling some, but it doesn’t change the fact that Markkanen is a real ceiling raiser.
Over the past four years, he’s flashed what he can do in bursts. This season, he finally gets the chance to stretch that out over a full run.
And if that opening stretch from last year is any clue, the league should be paying attention.
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