Last offseason, the Utah Jazz traded their star duo of Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert. They received a very large amount of future assets and prepared to rebuild. The Jazz were much better than they expected to be last season. Much of that is due to the breakout season of Lauri Markkanen.
Utah owns many of the future picks of Cleveland and Minnesota, but they still control the majority of their own draft picks. It would benefit them to get the most value out of those picks by pushing a full-scale rebuild and trading their top players.
Markkanen’s value is as high as it has ever been. Trading him now could mean having even more assets in the future. If the Jazz are patient, they could have the players and draft capital to be one of the best teams in the league in the next 4-5 seasons.
Jazz executive Danny Ainge once made the Boston Celtics a powerhouse franchise. He knows how to stack trades on top of each other and build value. He has a chance to do the same thing in Utah.