Jazz may have indicated plans with Lauri Markkanen vs. Kings

The Utah Jazz suffered their fourth straight loss against the Kings, which still makes their win streak a goose egg on the season. Utah may very well understandably still be reeling from Taylor Hendricks’ season-ending injury, but there was another takeaway.

With four seconds left in the first half, the Jazz switched Lauri Markkanen to Kyle Filipowski, and the former did not return for the rest of the game. The Athletic’s Tony Jones reported why Markkanen was absent.

The Jazz were down by 10 at the half, ended up losing by 17 and were down by 20-plus for much of the second half. Markkanen’s absence had a lot to do with how the Kings pulled off. It shows how important Markkanen is to jazz, but it can also mean something else.

No one is accusing the Jazz of inventing this injury. Markkanen is probably injured, but the question is, is he really so injured that he cannot play period?

Knowing that the Jazz have put their name in the hat for Cooper Flagg, Markkanen, despite how good he is, may be rested to increase the Jazz’s chances of getting the No. 1 pick in the 2025 NBA Draft.

Many have questioned why the Jazz chose to keep and re-sign Markkanen to a very expensive extension. The answer is quite simple: they want it both ways. They want someone who could be their next franchise cornerstone, who could be an MVP one day, and a big piece of their championship puzzle ready to contribute now.

There’s nothing wrong with that strategy at all because the Jazz can afford to have two timelines since Markkanen will be with the team for the foreseeable future and they have plenty of young talent to develop right alongside him. The only downside is that this could happen more often, meaning more painful losses in the immediate future.

This is all uncharted territory for the Jazz because they haven’t really committed to the idea too often. The last time they did that was 10 years ago when they tanked for Dante Exum. That experience should teach the Jazz that tanking, while not the worst idea, doesn’t guarantee future success.

It also requires drafting and developing the right players. Resting Markkanen makes sense as the Jazz know their priorities, but they need to make sure they don’t waste their time and his prime by doing so.