Lauri Markkanen, Jazz reach long-term contract extension

All-Star forward Lauri Markkanen has been the NBA’s most desired trade candidate this offseason, but he isn’t going anywhere.

Markkanen and the Utah Jazz have reached a massive, long-term contract extension, signed Wednesday, making him ineligible to be traded for the entire 2024-25 season. The Athletic reported on Tuesday that Markkanen and the Jazz were expected to reach that extension.

JUST IN: NBA All-Star Lauri Markkanen and the Utah Jazz are expected to agree to a massive long-term contract extension and sign Wednesday or later, making him untradeable for entire 2024-25, sources tell me, @Tjonesonthenba, @anthonyVslater.

Details: https://t.co/g4ioZvcaix

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) August 6, 2024

The deal will come via a renegotiation-and-extend, using the Jazz’s $33 million of open salary-cap space. League sources said Markkanen’s deal is projected to be worth upwards of $200 million over five years. It keeps him under contract through 2029, giving him the richest contract in Jazz history and one of the highest salaries for a European player in NBA history. Utah is able to give Markkanen his maximum salary of $42.2 million this upcoming season by using $24.13 million of that cap space to add to his current $18 million salary.

Tuesday marked the first day Markkanen, 27, and the Jazz were able to complete a contract extension this offseason. For Markkanen and Utah, this is a landscape-altering deal, keeping him off the trade market for a full season and out of 2025 free agency where he currently would have been the No. 1 available player.

The Jazz held Markkanen trade conversations with several serious suitors over the last month, including the San Antonio Spurs, Sacramento Kings and Golden State Warriors. The Warriors made the most aggressive offer, centered around Moses Moody, multiple first-round picks, pick swaps and second-rounders, team sources from both sides said. Utah wanted Brandin Podziemski in any theoretical deal. The Warriors were protective of Podziemski in the Markkanen conversation and a few other leaguewide trade proposals this summer, league sources said.

Talks between the Warriors and Jazz were most alive in early July but became sporadic in recent weeks, league sources said. In the last several days, the Warriors have been resigned that a Markkanen long-term extension in Utah is a foregone conclusion, team sources said. No team met the Jazz’s enormous value for their centerpiece forward, and rival executives understood the only way Utah would consider a proposal was if it was overwhelming.

Entering his eighth NBA season, Markkanen made a meteoric leap into one of the league’s top players in two years in Utah. He was picked seventh by the Chicago Bulls in the 2017 NBA Draft but fell in and out of favor in four seasons in Chicago, becoming less of a priority for multiple front-office regimes. Markkanen had a revitalizing season with the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2021-22, becoming a key starter alongside Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley in a three-big lineup that led the Cavs to a Play-In Tournament appearance.

Markkanen came to the Jazz in the Donovan Mitchell trade in the summer of 2022 and immediately transformed himself into the new franchise cornerstone. In 2023, he started in the All-Star Game in Salt Lake City, won the Most Improved Player award and nearly made an All-NBA team.

Across two breakout seasons with the Jazz, Markkanen has averaged 24.4 points, 8.4 rebounds, 1.9 assists, 49 percent field goal shooting and 40 percent on 3-pointers.

His 7-foot frame, athleticism, ability to shoot 3s with accuracy and volume and capacity to play above the rim made him a popular trade target throughout the league, especially given where the Jazz are in their rebuild.

But Markkanen, behind the scenes, repeatedly expressed his desire to remain in Utah and his belief in Utah’s plan over the long term, according to league sources. He and his family have taken to the community, and the Jazz see him as someone who can be a central figure in a rebuild now and in the future. The Jazz have made multiple attempts to upgrade the roster and add a star next to Markkanen, including pursuits for Jrue Holiday last offseason and Mikal Bridges this year, league sources said.

It’s why the Jazz needed a significant offer to think about moving on from Markkanen. At the end of the day, the Jazz weren’t close to dealing their talented combo forward.

Now comes the interesting part, which is Utah integrating Markkanen with a young roster. The Jazz want to develop the six picks they made over the last two drafts and have an eye on the 2025 NBA Draft, which could yield the potential superstar they have been trying to find since dealing Mitchell to the Cavaliers.

It makes for a fascinating roster this coming season. Markkanen is good enough to get wins. The younger players are collectively callow and inexperienced. Cooper Flagg and a host of other significant talents await in the 2025 draft.

For the Warriors, while ultimately whiffing as the leaders among interested teams in Markkanen, the timing of Markkanen’s extension provides a level of clarity: He’s off the table until at least next offseason. After a failed Paul George chase in late June, Markkanen became their top July trade target, with the Warriors believing his age, skill, style and contract situation made him an ideal building block through the current decade. But they were unwilling to unload the entire cupboard for him and now must pivot.

But that doesn’t mean an immediate panic. The Warriors have 14 players under contract for next season and feel comfortable entering training camp and the regular season as currently constructed, team sources said, though they are expected to explore smaller-scale deals more actively than is typical in August and September.

The Warriors maintain control of all but one of their future first-round picks (a 2030 top-20 protected pick outgoing to Washington), plus a young quartet of Podziemski, Trayce Jackson-Davis, Moody and Jonathan Kuminga, providing flexibility and ammunition to be an aggressive buyer all the way to February’s deadline. They’ve shown no appetite to enter the Zach LaVine or Brandon Ingram market.

(Photo of Lauri Markkanen and Draymond Green: John Hefti / USA Today)