Three Things NBA Preview: Utah Jazz
As I detailed a few weeks ago, I’m once again re-appropriating the Three Things I Noticed on League Pass format to preview the upcoming season. Instead of three things I noticed, it’ll be something more along the lines of three things I’m looking forward to, interested in, or want to see. Some of them might be narrative-based, some might be stats, and some might include video. But they'll all be focused on the 2025-26 campaign.
The schedule for those posts will be as follows (podcasts previewing each division with Mo Dakhil are in parentheses):
- Atlantic Division (BOS, BKN, NYK, PHI, TOR) (Podcast)
- Central Division (CHI, CLE, DET, IND, MIL) (Podcast)
- Southeast Division (ATL, CHA, MIA, ORL, WAS) (Podcast)
- Pacific Division (GSW, LAC, LAL, PHX, SAC) (Podcast)
- Northwest Division (DEN, MIN, OKC, POR, UTA)
- Oct. 6-10: Southwest Division (DAL, HOU, MEM, NOP, SAS) (Podcast)
So without further ado, let's get to the Utah Jazz, who barely pretended to try last season and are going even further in their not-caring this season. I am probably putting more effort into this preview as the Jazz are putting into capturing wins.
Lauri Markkanen, for how long?
Did the Jazz already miss their window to trade Markkanen? Any time before last season probably would have been optimal. However, there were some extenuating circumstances.
It would've been difficult to do it after the season where he was an All-Star following the Donovan Mitchell trade, just for optics reasons. And then last summer, Markkanen waited to sign his extension until a day after the deadline where he would still be eligible for a trade during the season. So they literally couldn't trade him last year. (Good for him. If you can guarantee yourself that you won't have to uproot yourself and your family in the middle of the year while also locking in your money, you should do it.)
But then he came out and had a down year and also got shut down for tanking reasons. His shooting dropped off from outside (down from 39.1% and 39.9% his first two years in Utah to a career-low 34.6% from three) and he wasn't as good at the self-creation stuff as he had been the two years prior.
According to GeniusIQ, Markkanen made 47.4% of his shots that would not have resulted in an assist during the 2022-23 season and 45.6% of them in 2023-24. Thats number was down to 42.4% last year. His effective field-goal percentage on those looks (i.e. including threes) has also dropped with each passing season in Utah despite the fact that he's actually created higher-value shot attempts with each passing season.
It's fair to wonder how much of that is about a legitimate drop-off from a career year and how much of it is just about playing in one of the worst offensive environments in the NBA. His performances for Finland in international competition, where he still crushes it, point toward the latter, but that also might be wishcasting a bit.
There are definitely still teams out there that will be interested in a 28-year-old combo forward who can shoot and create and isn't a defensive liability in most situations. He's the type of guy who can fit on almost any team. With the cap environment looking strong next summer, there might also be some teams that want to get ahead of the market and pick up a player who won't actually be available to them, and is probably better than a lot of the guys who will be. That'd be a nice way to use your cap space.
Given the Jazz's "goals" for this season, it'd be almost shocking if Markkanen weren't moved by the deadline... unless he disappoints like he did last year. To get the type of return they want for their investment in him, they really need him to bounce back and have the type of season he did in his first two years in Utah, otherwise they will really have missed their window and failed to maximize this "get as many draft picks as humanly possible" strategy.
