Utah Jazz X-Factor For The 2025-26 Season - Lauri Markkanen

For the last three seasons, the Utah Jazz have been a massive rebuilding project. With 37, 31, and a disastrous 17 victories last season, the Jazz have gotten progressively worse each year as they try to remake their roster from the ground up. After parting ways with Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert, the Jazz’s front office has gone the route of building through the draft. Yet despite the youth movement, one piece that remains a question in Utah is Lauri Markkanen.

Acquired in the deal for Mitchell, Markkanen became an All-Star and won the league’s Most Improved Player award during his first season in Utah. A versatile scorer and defender, with the ability to play in the paint and on the perimeter on both ends of the court, most teams would view the 7-foot forward as a building block. 

Yet, despite averaging 23 points and 7.7 rebounds during his three seasons in Utah, Markkanen is more of a dilemma than a solution. While he is obviously a talent that can contribute to winning, he is also the team’s most valuable trade asset. With his résumé, the ninth-year forward could bring a haul of draft picks and/or young talent back to Utah, pieces that the team seeks in its rebuilding project.

The question facing the Jazz this year is whether they keep Markkanen as a building block and extend the timeline, hoping that he helps develop young players like Ace Bailey, Keyonte George, and Isaiah Collier. Or do they try to move him while he still has significant value, potentially extending the losing in an attempt to gather a collection of draft picks?

While every game that Markkanen plays helps to raise his value, the clock continues to tick away on his prime years. Regardless of what Danny Ainge and the rest of the Jazz’s front office decide to do with Markkanen, he is ultimately the X-factor that determines the team’s path moving forward.