{"id":161916,"date":"2025-10-08T19:13:42","date_gmt":"2025-10-08T23:13:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=161916"},"modified":"2025-10-08T19:13:42","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T23:13:42","slug":"three-teams-that-can-realistically-trade-for-lauri-markkanen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/10\/08\/three-teams-that-can-realistically-trade-for-lauri-markkanen\/","title":{"rendered":"Three Teams That Can Realistically Trade for Lauri Markkanen"},"content":{"rendered":"

According to the latest reports, the Utah Jazz are finally open to exploring a trade for Lauri Markkanen<\/a>. That is a huge shift. Last summer, the Golden State Warriors attempted to trade for Lauri, but the Jazz declined, hoping for a better package. That didn\u2019t happen, and now they find themselves with a 28-year-old star who is ready to compete for a championship. But the Jazz are not in that phase, and they need young players and assets.<\/p>\n

Three Teams That Can Realistically Trade for Lauri Markkanen<\/h2>\n

While the Jazz are open to trading Markkanen per Chris Mannix<\/a> of Sports Illustrated, it will not be an easy task. For starters, he has a high salary. That means that any team trying to trade him has to be willing to take back more money or part ways with some of their high-salary players. This is one of the reasons why the Warriors, for example, cannot realistically make a trade without including Jimmy Butler or Draymond Green.<\/p>\n

If the Jazz decide to part ways with Markkanen, they will look for high quantity and quality of assets in exchange. They need either high lottery picks or potential cornerstones. For these three teams, trading for the Finnish star might mean parting ways with one of their young potential stars. Will they go for it? Let\u2019s explore the realistic options.
\n<\/p>\n

Detroit Pistons<\/h3>\n

The Detroit Pistons and Markkanen look like a match made in heaven<\/a>. With the former All-Star stretching the floor, Cade Cunningham<\/a> will have plenty of space to operate. But the challenge for the Pistons is making a trade without including Ausar Thompson<\/a>. They can easily make salaries work, but if the Jazz ask for Thompson, that will be a hard pill to swallow. The third-year forward has the potential to be a great player if he can improve his shooting. The Pistons have other young players like Jaden Ivey<\/a> and Jalen Duren<\/a>, but their value is not as high as Thompson\u2019s.<\/p>\n

After making the playoffs as the sixth seed last season, the Pistons should look to climb up. And Markkanen makes that possible. But are they ready to push their chips?
\n<\/p>\n

Miami Heat<\/h3>\n

The Miami Heat and their president, Pat Riley, are always hunting for stars. Like the Pistons, they have a couple of young players they can offer. But they find themselves in a similar challenging situation. Can they make a deal without giving up Kel\u2019el Ware<\/a>? By the end of last season, he was deemed untouchable. They also have Kasparas Jakucionis<\/a> and Nikola Jovic<\/a> (cannot be traded until January after signing a new deal<\/a>). With Jovic\u2019s performance at the FIBA EuroBasket, he upped his value, but is that enough to get Lauri? Of course, the Heat will also give up some picks.
\n<\/p>\n

Portland Trail Blazers<\/h3>\n

Unlike the Heat and the Pistons, the Portland Trail Blazers do not seem to have an untouchable player on their roster. Toumani Camara<\/a> has proven to be a great player, but he is a great role player at best.<\/p>\n

The Blazers have a couple of salaries they can throw in a deal, and some juicy future draft picks, like 2028 and 2030 swap rights with the Milwaukee Bucks.<\/p>\n

The moves they made in the summer suggest Portland wants to get back to the playoffs. But is it time to cash in their chips and upgrade with a player that doesn\u2019t fit the timeline of their young guys<\/a>? That is a question for the Blazers management to answer.<\/p>\n

\u00a9 Chris Nicoll-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

According to the latest reports, the Utah Jazz are finally open to exploring a trade for Lauri Markkanen. That is a huge shift. Last summer, the Golden State Warriors attempted to trade for Lauri, but the Jazz declined, hoping for a better package. That didn\u2019t happen, and now they find themselves with a 28-year-old star […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5291,"featured_media":161939,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,10,16,62,23,24],"tags":[926],"class_list":["post-161916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-pistons","category-heat","category-nba","category-trailblazers","category-jazz","tag-lauri-markkanen"],"modified_by":"Zach Kircher","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5291"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161916"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161916\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":161940,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161916\/revisions\/161940"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/161939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}