UNTRADEABLE: Why the Utah Jazz Must BUILD Around Lauri Markkanen & What about THE PICK

UNTRADEABLE: Why the Utah Jazz Must BUILD Around Lauri Markkanen & What about THE PICK

The NBA rumor mill is a buzz. The Jazz to keep Lowry Markin and him build around him. Yeah, of course. We’ve been saying this for months. It’s next on Locked on Jazz. You are Locked on Jazz, your daily podcast on the Utah Jazz, part of the Locked On podcast network. your team every day. How are you? I’m David Lock, radio voice Utah Jazz, Jazz NBA insider. This is Locked on Jazz. It’s your daily podcast on the Utah Jazz, giving you insight, expertise, geeky numbers, and hopefully making it way better to be a Jazz fan each and every day. Thank you so much for making Locked On Jazz your first listen. and thank you for making Locked On the number one sports podcast network. Appreciate it very much. Today’s show is going to be a good one. We will point gain it at the end of the show where we’ll look at the best offensive players around the league, everything that’s going on with that. We will look at discuss the dreaded draft pick situation that all of you that follow this team daily are dealing with. and it is worth a discussion. We will start with the rumors that the Jazz are going to keep Lowry Marketing and build around him. Today’s episode is brought to you by Game Time app. Create an account. Use the code locked in NBA for $20 off your first purchase. And to the everydayers out there, you are the best. Thank you so much. All right. So, Mark Stein reported it first in the Stein Line that the Utah Jazz are going to likely keep Lowry Markin and build around him. This is not breaking news. If you’ve been listening to Locked on Jazz for the last six months, as hopefully you have been, as my comment has been this entire time, I think the Jazz Lowry Markin plays on the next Jazz playoff team that Lowry Markin is a part of the next Jazz playoff team. There is, let me explain that comment and then there is one scenario where this is not the case. So, let’s walk through them and discuss this for a second and understand why. And then this relates to what about the draft pick? What about the fact that our draft pick is currently such that if we fall to ninth in the NBA draft, the Oklahoma City Thunder get our pick. And we’re eerily close to that. And I am not going to lie to you. I’ve seen mock drafts where that pick goes to Oklahoma City and you’re like, ah. So, let’s discuss why would the Jazz keep Lowry if this draft pick is there. The first thing is you have to have some pieces in place. You Washington and who we’re going to see Brooklyn tonight do not. And I guess over time we’ll find out if they’re right or not. But and their commitment to not having any pieces in place and grow with youth is a uh is quite the quite the commitment. On the other end of things, I think when you look at where the Jazz are, what they’re they’re in the midst of a rebuild and trying to see if what they can do and how they can build this. And the next step is you have Ace Bailey hopefully coming together. You add another piece of the puzzle here in the near future and then from there you have to have some piece in place. So we have Lowry in place as a bonafide elite top 50 player in the NBA. And then from once you have Lowry in place, you can build around him and add pieces. we’re going to hopefully add one or two pieces in free agency. Either one of them is a very significant piece or if we have players coming together, you do what Oklahoma City did, which is you add Isaiah Harkinstein and Alex Cruso where maybe you overpay a little bit to get a player or maybe you overpay for an Austin Reeves this off seasonason and you’ve now coupled Austin Reeves with Lowry Markin and you’re waiting for Ace Bailey to click and hopefully you have a top five pick in this year’s draft and now you have your pieces that you’re trying to build your puzzle with to move forward. If you trade Lowry Markin, you literally have the cupboard as bear and you’re starting at zero. And that’s I think where you just if you’re the Jazz, you that is literally starting as cupboard at zero. If you were to trade Larry Markin, the reason would be that there’s a young piece that is available that fills a gap in your building. In other words, let’s say Keonte George was having another 39% shooting year and 31% from three-year instead of the breakout year he’s having. And we’re sitting here on December 4th saying to ourselves, “Oh gosh, we we don’t have K. We don’t have a guard.” Then maybe you’re like, “Okay, our rebuild is set back a little bit. We trade Lowry Markin for a young piece. It’s a guard.” Jay Navy has been mentioned the most down the Detroit Pistons and you try to put some other pieces together. But right now on a year which if we really want to get into it has been virtually perfect for the Utah Jazz and where they are as a franchise. Lowry’s reestablished himself. Kee has burst through in a year three breakout to show he’s a bonafide NBA player. Ace Bailey is showing every sign of being terrific. Walker Kesler’s injury not so perfect. But you know that Walker is a established NBA player. you now have pieces to this puzzle and Lowry is also a key piece because of this basically the foundation he built. The second area on Lowry, if we’re just being completely transparent, I think he’s very hard to trade. The apron collective bargaining system that we have right now is pretty restrictive on teams adding players and Lowry’s paid an awful lot. when he’s up at 40 and 50 million. If he’s going to be your second or third best player, I’m not sure it works for a lot of teams. Detroit is probably one of the exceptions to that. There are some surprising teams having good years right now that I that could could have an impact. I don’t think you’re trading Lowry for Giannis, for example, from our standpoint, unless you think that Giannis is g you’re going to be able to turn this thing around really fast. I don’t think Giannis is going to want to come to Utah for part of the build process. So I don’t when you start to look at Lowry and trying to trade a or just trying to look let’s not call it Lowry you’re trying to trade a 40 or 50 million contract right now to a team and you’re not Luca Donic I think that’s a that’s a tough tough trade to be made. So this report that the Jazz are keeping Lowry and building around him unsurprising to me at all in any way shape or form. It’s frankly what I’ve been saying here for months on end that Lowry will be on the Jazz next playoff team, but more when you dig into it, there’s just real logic behind that. The logic behind keeping Lowry is you need a piece in place to build around. The logic is that his salary works for us at 40 or 50 million because once we’re good, Ace Bailey is going to be on a cost controlled salary. You’re going to have some cap space to sign some other people. And hopefully your second really good young player who you’re getting in this draft is under a cost controlled salary. You’re gonna have to have some players under a cost control the way the Boston Celtics did with Jaylen Brown and Jason Tatum as they built this thing up as the way Oklahoma City does right now as with Chad Homegr and Jaylen Williams as they build this thing up and they’ll start to have both those teams will then have to adjust as those cost control salaries come off the books. That’s that’s the model. You can have Lowry at 45 or 50 when you have that model. And the third piece is things are going well. So the only reason to trade Lowry is if you’re trying to fill a gap in some area of your development by bringing in one or two new young players you’re taking a shot at. I I’m not precluding the idea like Jay Ivy, the much talked about one. If you believe in Jay Ivy, there’s no reason Jay Ivan couldn’t play next to Kee George. If you really believe that’s what you need as a guard, but there’s also like I’m gonna take the burden hand of a top 50 player at that point who matches salary-wise and everything else. So that’s the biggest. Now there is one other reason why you would trade Larry Markin and that’s the dreaded draft pick. The Derek Favorvers salary dump trade that still is cursing us today with this draft pick. Top eight protected would be you unload Lowry to make sure that you don’t win too many games. Let’s discuss the draft pick and what the Jazz should do about it and how big an issue it is. Next on Locked on Jazz. Today’s show is brought to you by Woodward Park City. 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So if the Jazz pick one through eight, they get their pick. And if they pick nine through 30, goes to Oklahoma City. Here’s the really interesting one about this is if the Jazz pick one through eight this year, the protections dissolve and it becomes a second round draft pick that goes to Oklahoma City. Now, when the year started, I think everyone kind of agreed that the Brooklyn Nets and the Washington Wizards were committed to the task of being in draft position at a level that nobody can compete with and that everyone kind of assumed the Jazz were next in line. But as we sit here today and you project out the set the standings for the season at basketball reference as of right now it is projected that we would go to the lottery with Washington with the number one pick. San New Orleans with the number two though they lose it. Indiana with the number three pick. Sacramento with the number four pick. Brooklyn with the number five pick. The Charlotte Hornets with the number six pick. and the Utah Jazz with the number seven pick with Dallas and the Clippers hovering awfully close. It’s getting tight. What has happened here is I don’t think anybody expected Indiana to be this bad. No one expected Charlotte to be this bad. And no one expected the Clippers or the Mavericks to be in this conversation. That’s how at least the season projects right now, right? You actually look at the standings right now. The Jazz are in the direct, you go to tankathon.com and it’s right there. The ninth pick of the draft moves to the Oklahoma City Thunder because as we sit here right now, Dallas at 8 and 15 and the Clippers at 6 and 16 and Charlotte at 6 and 16 are all have worse records than Utah Jazz. And if the season were to end today and the lottery would go as expected, the Jazz would give up their pick. So, let me be perfectly clear about something. We’re not going to sugarcoat this. If the Jazz lose their first round pick, it’s pretty catastrophic. The whole entire build is built about adding talent. And to go a year where you’re not winning a lot of games and not add talent would be pretty catastrophic. That’s undeniable. Let me tell you what, it’s not lost on anyone. I don’t think like don’t sit here and worry, oh my gosh, people don’t realize how important having the pick is. No, everyone knows like it’s that big a deal. And I don’t think losing the making a run for the playin is worth the pick. Losing the pick. What has happened that makes this interesting is these other teams that have suddenly played far worse than you expected. When you projected out the season, you did not expect Indiana, Sacramento, the Clippers, and Dallas to have a worse record than the Jazz. Okay, the Clippers I’m not particularly worried about because they don’t control their pick. The Clippers pick goes to Oklahoma City as well. Sam Prey is just going to clean up here. GM of Oklahoma City right now. If the season ended today, Oklahoma City would have the best record in the history of the NBA and have the seventh and ninth pick of the drafts. It’s like crazy. I think the Clippers will make a run to try to make the playin. Um, and maybe getting rid of Chris Paul evidently is all they needed to do. I don’t know about New Orleans should make a run. They don’t own their pick. There’s no reason for them to be bad. I actually am not sure they’re capable of winning. They’re three and 19 and they should be winning and they’re getting worse. Indiana and Sacramento are a problem. Indiana and Sacramento are going to head full-fledged into lottery positioning here. There’s no other choice. Indiana is trying to play better. They’ve won three of their last 10. Sacramento’s lost eight of 10 is getting blown out on a nightly basis. Brooklyn’s fully committed. you suddenly have New Orleans who may not be capable of winning and four franchises, maybe five of Charlotte who are going to be committed to lottery position. That makes a group of seven. If we go into the lottery night with seven at the seventh pick, there’s two problems with that. One, two teams jump us, we lose our pick. And one, we certainly were hoping to get a better than seventh pick for the draft. So, how concerned should we be? It’s a real issue. Like, let’s not ignore that. We’re projected to win 30 games right now on the basketball reference thing. That feels really high still. And this is where I might say, let’s let things play out a tiny bit. One, we’ve had relatively perfect health. Two, we have not played the toughest schedule in the world. Three, the Houston win was the first time we’ve beaten above 500 team. So, I don’t think we’re radically so much better than we thought that we’re like making a run to the and like it’s it’s unstoppable. We’ve currently won seven games. I think the expectation probably at this point, 20 games in the season, is we’ve probably won one or two more games than we anticipated. I think if you probably looked at the schedule at the beginning of the year, you would have thought we were probably five and 15 at this point. We’re seven and 13. So, we’re not 10 games ahead of where we would be. We’re two games ahead of where you thought that might matter. I think you’re going to see 25 win number kind of being the number where everyone hovers around. New Orleans probably gets to 25. Washington, I doubt it. I would suspect that Brooklyn, Indiana, Sacramento are all around 25. And that would that’s a only eight more wins for us the rest of the way. That could be hard for us to get to. And I don’t know that we’re suddenly going to want to make the effort to go do that. But that 25 win number seems to be kind of like where teams are going to sit in this upcoming year. And yeah, if we’re sitting at seven, it’s going to be super nerve-wracking. Ideally, you’re at like five and you win the lottery. We’ve all seen that the lot the issue is two part. One is you’d like to get one of the top four picks through the lottery. And the second part of it is you don’t want to be in a position where bad luck suddenly sends you to nine and you lose your pick. So, what does this mean? It’s a little nerve-wracking right now. It’s not lost on anyone. It is that important. It’s not full-blown crisis mode because while we’re two games ahead of where we probably are, we’re not like eight games ahead. But if the draft pick is this important, which it is, yeah, honestly, some of the wiggle room is getting tight. and getting a little unnerving and that’s a bummer and this draft pick has kind of cursed the Jazz fan experience for the last few years. There’s no question but it’s real. So that’s where we sit on it. I I wouldn’t quite get to the like I never want us to win another game level, but there is a weird aspect to having this thing lingering outside of us. And there has been a change this year that there are three or four teams that have suddenly hit the skids in a manner that no one anticipated. And so what looked like a three team race to the bottom instead is a seven team race for lottery position. And that certainly changes the dynamics of the year and what’s taking place. It’s a weird way. I will agree with all of you on this. It is a super weird way to be a sports fan right now. And thankfully, this will hopefully be the last and final year that we ever deal with it. Because the irony is this goes from this cumbersome trade to all of a sudden if we actually go through this season and we end up only giving up second round draft picks, we actually ended up giving up almost nothing for the Derek Favors salary dump after feeling like it’s encumbered us in everything we’ve done for the last eon. Crazy. Points gained is our offensive metric system we use to judge who’s playing well, what they’re doing on the offensive side. It’s exclusive to Locked on Jazz and it’s next. Today’s show is brought to you in part by our good friends over at Game Time. Ticketing app for you is the official ticketing app of Locked On. And Game Time is here to make sure that you have the best experience you possibly can while looking for tickets and making sure that you can get to it. We’ve got a massive big time event coming up here in the United States. It’s the World Cup coming back to North America for the first time since 1994. 48 teams for the first time ever. Going to be massive. Getting tickets usually the hardest part. That’s why the Game Time app is clutch. Finally, giving fans a real advantage when it comes to snagging seats. With Game Time, you can track price drops in real time. Get alerts when great seats open and buy tickets the amount they hit the the moment they hit the app. It puts the power back in your hands and makes going to World Cup realistic instead of impossible. I love the Game Time app because one, the layout makes it so simple to scroll through matchups and compare sefuse. Two, you can pick a game, tap a section, have tickets located within minutes. No confusion, no hunting, and the seat view feature is gamechanging. The price upfront fees all shown. No last second surprises at checkout. That’s what separates Game Time. So, take the guesswork out of buying World Cup tickets, every match, every concert, every event with Game Time. Download the Game Time app, create an account, use the code locked on NBA for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, download the app, make an account, use the code locked on NBA for $20 off your first pitch tickets. Swipe, tap, ticket, go all at game time. Every day, we’ve got a fun announcement coming for you next week. Hopefully, you’re going to love it. super access to things, new benefits, all sorts of extra stuff coming to the every day out there. All right, points gained is our offensive metric we use to judge offensive players. Sometimes point Thursdays are point games Thursdays, sometimes they’re lateg game watch Thursday. I’ve not gotten a late game watch. So today is a points game Thursday. So let’s look for the season. Nicole Joic continues to be the top player in the NBA. Um, we actually have something I have something weird going in my offensive numbers right now. So, let me look at what’s going on. See if I can fix this. I have Nicole Joic twice and I have Shay Gildish Alexander twice and I have Giannis Adakumbo twice. I have something funky taking place in my metrics. So, we’re going to do a quick little change and see if I can get that back so that it’s fixed. But Nicole Joic and Shay Gildas Alexander, to no one’s surprise, are the top two plays. Here’s the way the statistic works. We look at two basic abilities. One is the efficiency by which someone uses a possession. Okay. So, right, the le there’s a league average in which somebody can uses an offensive possession. We compare everybody based on that level. So, instead of some of the things you’ve seen where they do it by replacement level, we do it by league average. And the premise is a belief that if you can get everybody on your roster above the league average, then you will end up being pretty much unstoppable offensively. Denver is pretty close to getting there. They have the best offense in the league. Oklahoma City was pretty close to some of it last year. That’s the premise. You want everyone uh The second thing is the ability to use an offensive possession, excuse me, the ability to get an offensive possession off. like it’s hard to actually get shots off in this league. So, you can be super efficient, you dunk four times a game, you’ll come out well, but you it’s not here are this season’s points game leaders, and the number three guy on this list should open everyone’s eyes. Number one is Nicole Joic. Number two is Shay Gildas Alexander. Number three is Austin Reeves, free agent at the end of the year. Should that be the Jazz target? Number four is Jannis Dumbo. Number five is Jaylen Duran. Six, Norman Powell. That might be why the Clippers are having such a tough year. Number seven, Donovan Mitchell having a monster season. Number eight, DeAndre Aiden for the Lakers. Number nine, Kawhi Leonard. Number 10’s Ryan Clockenberger for Charlotte who just dunks every single time, shoots 81%. Number 11 is Aaron Gordon. Number 12 is Steph Curry. Number 13 is Zack Edy in his limited time. Number 14’s Luca Donic. Number 15’s AG Green. 16 Anthony Edwards. 17 Jimmy Butler. 18 Chad Homegrren. 19 Antonio Reeves of Charlotte. Tuluo Smith of Detroit jumping in there. Rudy Gobear. And then these are all the guys that are plus two, which is a big deal. James Harden, I sumo, Jake Yak, Purle, Jaylen Johnson, Sam Merrill, and Malik and Mal uh Malik uh Mikuel Bridges, the worst offensive player in the NBA. Those who are having the most negative impact, John Mor stays there. He’s been there for a little while. And these players, I will tell you that my feeling has been always that one of the areas where the league makes the biggest mistake is they do not understand the how negative the impact of how negative a player is. A negative offensive player really disrupts your offense and it’s hard to overcome. LaMelo Ball along with John Morant are the two least efficient offensive players in the NBA having the largest negative impact on their team’s offense. Caleb Love in Portland, Derek White, Jerice Walker, Trey Man in Charlotte, Brandon Williams, VJ Edgecom, not surprising, but is illuminating. Dennis Shruder, D’Angelo Russell, Dallas playing better as they don’t play him. Ben Shepard in Indiana. Vince Williams in Memphis. Aaron Nesmith, Indiana. Lonzo Ball in Cleveland. Cleveland might have a problem, by the way. And then Shaden Sharp in Portland kind of wraps up the list of the bottom 10 offensive players over the last 10 games. The hottest player in the NBA, no surprise to anyone, seems to be the one Sheay Gilg Alexander. followed by Nicole Joic. Steph Curry prior to the injury was third. Austin Reeves fourth. Kawhi Leonard fifth. Giannis who just went out with an injury fifth. Norman Powell six. So a lot of the same names just early in the season. Tyler Hero has only played four games been heating up. DeAndre Eaton, Jaylen Duran, AJ Green, Mark Williams, and Cameron Johnson in Denver heating up. Donovan Mitchell on fire. Nobody big, no big changes in there. Coldest players in the NBA over the last 10 games. And we’ll look at the Jazz here in just one second. LaMelo Ball is the coldest player in the league, minus 4.8. That is horrific. Shooting 33% from the floor, 23% from three. That’s unplayable. Brandon Williams in Dallas, Vince Williams in Memphis, Draymond Green, Herb Jones, Caleb Love. Jaylen Williams has not started well in his three games back. VJ Edgecom, Cody Williams, Lonzo Ball, Yoic out of Miami, Bruce Brown in Denver struggling, Shaden Sharp struggling, Patrick Williams, Cedric Coward, Russell Westbrook finding his usual spot. Seeing a bunch of some of the rookies showing up there. Cooper Flag going the other way recently, as is Ace Bailey. for the Utah Jazz for the season. The way to judge this again, who’s your most efficient offensive players and then they get bonused for being able to get shots off. Walker was our best. Now Lowry is plus 1.2. Sim Kyuk next at plus.5. Keonte George at plus.4. That’s very good for key. Kevin loves positive. Isaiah Collier plus.3. Good to see Ace Bailey is at minus.3 which is good for rookie Bryce Sensab minus.5 Kyle Filipowski minus.6 while Clayton minus.7 Taylor minus 1.1 Ysef Nerkage – 1.4 and Cody Williams minus 1.9 and if we go to the most recent stretch of games on our points on our points game Thursday for our Jazz players Lowry is going to be the leader still at 2.0’s knows impressive comeback from struggling but Ace Bailey is at plus 1.6 over his last 10 games 53% from the floor 42% from three 14 points three rebounds two assists it is all happening uh Sim Kyuk at plus 1.1 Kevin Love at 6 Kyle Filipowski4 good to see all those guys in the positive Ysef Nerk is at 2 Ke still at 02 Bryce Sens minus6 while Clayton at minus 1.2 2 and Cody at minus three. That is your points gained. That is your Thursday edition of Locked On. We’ll be back with you tomorrow from New York City after the Nets tonight. Join us on the drive home. Ron Boon and I’ll be on the call. Have a great day. Thank you so much for tuning in. We now send you the first ever 247 national NBA channel on Locked on NBA on YouTube. And if you’re on audio, make sure you pick up at locked on NBA game night every

Utah Jazz commit to building around Lauri Markkanen, defying NBA trade rumors and doubling down on their franchise cornerstone. Can Markkanen, alongside breakout guard Keyonte George and rising talent Ace Bailey, form the core of the next Jazz playoff team amid a highly competitive rebuild?

David Locke breaks down the Jazz’s roster strategy, exploring why retaining Markkanen makes both basketball and financial sense under the new collective bargaining agreement. Key insights include Utah’s precarious draft pick situation, how the Derek Favors salary dump still haunts the franchise, and what it will take to secure top lottery positioning against rivals like the Brooklyn Nets and Charlotte Hornets. Points gained metrics spotlight the NBA’s top offensive performers and reveal why adding the right pieces in free agency or the draft could make all the difference.

0:00: jazz building around Lauri Markkanen
12:30: What about the Draft pick dilemma
25:00: Points Gained

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