Report: Jazz Not Shopping Lauri Markkanen, Would Need Massive Offer To Trade Him

According to NBA insider Tim MacMahon of ESPN, the Utah Jazz are not shopping Lauri Markkanen. 

The Jazz would need a massive offer to trade Markkanen.

“The Jazz I don’t believe are shopping him,” MacMahon said on The Hoop Collective Podcast. “But if you give them an offer they can’t refuse, they would take it. There’s been nothing close to an offer they can’t refuse.”

Markkanen becomes extension eligible on August 6. He’s on an expiring $18 million contract and due for an extensivelong-term raise.

Markkanen is one of the top players in the NBA. He averaged 23.2 points, 8.2 rebounds, 2.0 assists, 0.9 steals and 0.5 blocks in 2023-24 while shooting 48.0% from the field, 39.9% from beyond the arc and 89.9% from the free-throw line in 55 games. 

Markkanen has career averages of 18.1 points, 7.3 rebounds, 1.5 assists, 0.7 steals and 0.5 blocks with the Chicago Bulls, Cleveland Cavaliers and Jazz. He won the 2022-23 Most Improved Player of the Year Award with Utah. 

According to NBA insider Marc Stein, Markkanen wants to remain with the Jazz. 

“It seems unlikely this would happen, because Markkanen is by all accounts happy in Salt Lake City and believed to be interested in securing a future there, but I shouldn’t have completely dismissed the possibility that he could be unsettled by all the recent reports that his team entertained the possibility of trading him,” Stein wrote. “This goes for any player realistically.

“Purely from a common sense standpoint, Utah almost certainly could command more in a trade for Markkanen once he is signed to a new long-term deal, which can’t happen before Aug. 6. Yet it’s likewise true that the Jazz could decide to extend Markkanen once they are eligible to do so and keep building around him. Both of those scenarios are generally seen around the league as more probable than a trade in the short-term, given that Markkanen currently holds an expiring contract at a mere $18 million, but it was errant to advance the idea that all the recent chatter has zero downsides.”