{"id":71246,"date":"2024-03-30T22:14:14","date_gmt":"2024-03-31T02:14:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=71246"},"modified":"2024-03-30T22:27:41","modified_gmt":"2024-03-31T02:27:41","slug":"jazz-lauri-markkanen-injury-update-final-nail-coffin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/03\/30\/jazz-lauri-markkanen-injury-update-final-nail-coffin\/","title":{"rendered":"Star\u2019s Update Final Nail in Jazz Coffin"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Utah Jazz will likely complete their 2023-24 campaign without forward <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/m\/markkla01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Lauri Markkanen<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Per the Jazz, Markkanen was diagnosed with a right shoulder injury on Saturday. The 26-year-old &#8220;re-aggravated a previous right shoulder impingement&#8221; against the San Antonio Spurs on Wednesday and then missed Utah\u2019s game against the Houston Rockets on Friday.<\/p>\n<h2>Lauri Markkanen Update Final Nail in Jazz Coffin<\/h2>\n<p>Markkanen will be re-evaluated in two weeks. The 2023-24 regular season ends on Apr. 14. The Jazz will face the Golden State Warriors in the season finale.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Lauri Markkanen Injury Update:<\/p>\n<p>After experiencing discomfort in his right shoulder following the 3\/27 San Antonio game, Jazz forward Lauri Markkanen underwent an MRI on Friday, which revealed he re-aggrivated a previous right shoulder impingement. He will be re-evaluated in two\u2026<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Utah Jazz (@utahjazz) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/utahjazz\/status\/1774226661762027826?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 31, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Markkanen has averaged 23.2 points, 8.2 rebounds, and 0.9 steals per game this season, shooting 39.9 percent from 3. It\u2019s Markkanen\u2019s second season averaging at least 20 points per game. He scored a career-high 25.6 points per game last season, leading to his first All-Star selection.<\/p>\n<p>An elite play-finisher, the 7-foot-0 forward has become the face of Jazz\u2019s rebuild since being traded by the Cleveland Cavaliers in the 2022 offseason.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Utah has the look of a team that\u2019s tanking. The Jazz <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/teams\/UTA\/2024\/splits\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">are just 3-15<\/a> since the All-Star Weekend, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/03\/17\/jazz-will-hardy-praises-keyonte-george-potential\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">prioritizing the development<\/a> of rookie <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/g\/georgke01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Keyonte George<\/a>. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/c\/clarkjo01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jordan Clarkson<\/a>, averaging 17.1 points per game, has only played in nine of Utah\u2019s 18 games since the break.<\/p>\n<p>Now <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tankathon.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">projected to have<\/a> the eighth overall pick in the 2024 NBA Draft, the question is if the Jazz will try to add another young piece or package the pick with Clarkson or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/s\/sextoco01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Collin Sexton<\/a> to <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/03\/03\/jazz-offseason-collin-sexton-trade-best-both-sides\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">get another cornerstone player<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>To that point, Sexton has made significant strides in his development, averaging 18.8 points per game this season. However, his aggressive play style doesn\u2019t seem quite to Hardy\u2019s liking. Furthermore, the chemistry between Sexton and the team\u2019s main perimeter players has been off all season. As a result, he may find himself on the move for a star player who\u2019s a more natural fit within Utah\u2019s core<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Utah Jazz will likely complete their 2023-24 campaign without forward Lauri Markkanen. Per the Jazz, Markkanen was diagnosed with a right shoulder injury on Saturday. The 26-year-old &#8220;re-aggravated a previous right shoulder impingement&#8221; against the San Antonio Spurs on Wednesday and then missed Utah\u2019s game against the Houston Rockets on Friday. Lauri Markkanen Update [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":71247,"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":[24,1608,62,3],"tags":[926,4745],"class_list":["post-71246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-jazz","category-basketball","category-nba","category-news","tag-lauri-markkanen","tag-nba-injuries"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71246","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\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71246"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71246\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}