Lauri Markkanen is about to get something he hasn’t really had in Utah: a full season to just play.
With the Jazz no longer sitting him for tanking purposes, Markkanen finally gets the runway to show what he can do when the leash comes off. That opens the door to another All-Star nod, his first real chance at a playoff push, and maybe even something bigger if everything breaks right. If this season goes the way Utah hopes, it could be the beginning of Markkanen carving out a place as a Jazz legend.
That sounds lofty, but Markkanen has already spent years looking like one of the NBA’s most unusual stars. His rise made Utah slow to pick a direction, and the franchise only committed to tanking once its win-now options disappeared.
That chapter is over now. The Jazz may not be talented enough to be a true contender, but the range of outcomes is wide enough that this season could swing in just about any direction.
If things click, Markkanen could end up as the best player on a legitimate playoff team that nobody in the West wants to see. And if he keeps climbing from there, his long-term legacy in Utah gets a lot more interesting.
Last season offered a reminder of just how dangerous he can be. Markkanen was producing numbers the Jazz hadn’t seen before, before the team eventually shut him down. No one is expecting him to match that exact pace over an entire season, but it still says plenty about how potent he is when he’s rolling.
The bigger question is where he fits in the Jazz’s all-time picture.
After Karl Malone and John Stockton, the conversation gets messy. Pete Maravich, Adrian Dantley, Deron Williams, Rudy Gobert, and Donovan Mitchell are usually the names that come up next.
Maravich and Dantley were the most statistically impressive, but the Jazz didn’t win much with them. Williams’ tenure ended badly.
Gobert and Mitchell brought success, but only to a point.
Markkanen’s standing will come down to the same mix that shapes every great franchise debate: production, longevity, and team success. If he keeps putting up big numbers and the Jazz keep moving forward around him, he’ll have a real case to be remembered warmly in Utah.
For now, the important part is simpler. He’s no longer being held back by the tank, and the Jazz finally get to find out what he looks like with the wheels fully turned loose.
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For now, though, there is no indication Utah plans to cut him loose. If that ever changes, the rights trade would make Sioux Falls the most obvious landing spot for Bamba in the G League, adding a wrinkle to a situation that already had a lot of moving parts around his future in Salt Lake City. [Read more 🡒]
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Even with an upgraded roster and a schedule that mixes home and road dates early, the challenge is the same one that has followed Utah for a while: start fast enough to stay in the Western Conference race. The Jazz do not need perfection in October and November, but they do need a cleaner opening than the one that has become all too familiar. [Read more 🡒]