Lauri Markkanen
First off, I love Markkanen and think he’d be an ideal player to put around Cade Cunningham, so this has nothing to do with him as a player.
But have you seen what Utah is asking for in a trade? It’s almost like they are trolling the league.
And can I ask, what in the world has Lauri Markkanen done to deserve to be treated like a superstar? He’s made one All-Star team. He’s never even appeared in the playoffs. If you want to know what a team looks like with Markkanen as its best player, ask the Jazz, who won 31 games last season and act like they are sitting on the next Kevin Durant.
He’s been on one winning team in his career, the 2021-22 Cavs, who did not make the playoffs. He averaged 14 points per game for that squad when he wasn't the first option.
Markkanen has never played 70 games in a season in his entire career. It will not only cost a boatload to get him, but he’s going to get a massive extension from someone.
I get it. He’s a seven-footer who can shoot. But he can’t stay healthy and his teams have never been good, so giving up a treasure chest of assets for a guy and then paying him upwards of $50 million a year to play 55 games is not a prudent way to spend money in the apron era.