Photo by Vaughn Ridley/NBAE via Getty Images Danny Ainge and the Utah Jazz are going to have a busy trade deadline On the latest #thisleague UNCUT podcast, we were given more information from Marc Stein and Chris Haynes regarding the Lauri Markkanen situation, and the Utah Jazz and trade deadlines. https://open.spotify.com/embed/episode/ ... rce=oembed
Marc Stein mentioned the Jazz expected to be better than their record this season and mentions the Jazz expected to be better than their record. He says they have a number of players available including Jordan Clarkson, Kelly Olynyk, he cites Andy Larsen who reported John Collins is already available. Stein mentions that he reported a week ago that teams will “test Utah’s resolve” to keep Lauri Markkanen but the “insane” price for Lauri Markkanen makes that more difficult and it would “take a lot, A LOT, to get Lauri Markkanen away from the Jazz.” The interesting rumor from this segment comes when Stein goes on to say “...it’s been stressed to me that there are a couple teams that are gonna try and see how committed the Jazz are to keeping him. All the signals are that the Jazz are high on him... Lauri Markkanen has a lot of fans around this league after his all-star break through last season, and so I think that there will be a team or two or three that, between now and February 8th try and see if Utah will listen. Like I said, I think the expected high price tag works against the notion of a trade, but Utah woke up on this Friday 11-18, and they expected a better record than that.” He also mentions the litany of injuries that have contributed to that, but the Jazz likely thought they could compete for a play-in and we’ll see if the Jazz pivot. Either way, it’s clear that we have about six weeks of trade rumors coming, as the Jazz will likely be getting calls from all around the league.
Source: https://www.slcdunk.com/2023/12/23/2401 ... -markkanen