Utah’s High Asking Price For Lauri Markkanen Shows OKC Thunder Trade Was Never Realistic

The Thunder were tied to Lauri Markkanen hypotheticals for quite sometime, but the asking price was always steep.

Mar 27, 2024; Salt Lake City, Utah, USA; Utah Jazz forward Lauri Markkanen (23) reacts to a play against the San Antonio Spurs during the fourth quarter at Delta Center. Mandatory Credit: Rob Gray-USA TODAY Sports / Rob Gray-USA TODAY Sports

It’s always going to be tough to work out a deal with Utah Jazz general manager Danny Ainge. He has proven to be one of the best in the league, and seems to consistently be on the right side of trade deals. Trying to pry away an All Star talent from the young core was always going to be a tough ask.

On Monday, Shams Charania reported that Utah is still listening to Golden State’s godfather offer for Markkanen, but the two sides appear to be far off. The Warriors offered Moses Moody and first round picks, but Ainge reportedly countered with Moody, Jonathan Kuminga, Brandin Podziemski and additional draft capital. While Markkanen is a special talent, it’s essentially trading away Golden State’s future.

The Golden State Warriors are offering Moses Moody, multiple first-round picks, multiple pick swaps and multiple second-round picks to the Utah Jazz in exchange for Lauri Lauri Markkanen, per @ShamsCharania

Utah wants Moody, Jonathan Kuminga and Brandin Podziemski, along with… pic.twitter.com/29nvfk9oqT

— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) July 15, 2024

The high price from Ainge shows just how much Oklahoma City would’ve been asked to give up in a deal for Utah’s star forward. And that’s a price that likely would’ve been a lateral move at best for an already contending Thunder team.

Many have suspected and loosely reported that Utah was heavily interested in Jalen Williams, which could be true based on the wanted package from Golden State. In many star packages, NBA analysts included the Thunder’s young prospects like Ousmane Dieng and Josh Giddey before he was traded to Chicago. Oklahoma City doesn’t necessarily have additional young available talents like Kuminga and Podziemski to add to the deal — which brings us back to Williams. From the outside looking in, Williams was probably considered untouchable from the jump, which would’ve ended any conversation in a hypothetical trade.

Of course, Oklahoma City has the most draft capital to offer out of nearly every NBA team. But the leaked report from Charania suggests Utah is prioritizing adding young star talent in addition to draft picks. Draft picks alone hasn’t been enough to entice the Jazz to move Markkanen.

For any team, Markkanen’s reported asking price is probably too high of a bill to pay. He’s a great player, and would make any team better in theory, but nuking the team’s current core and what makes them good likely isn’t worth it. The attractive part about adding a player like Markkanen is he pushes a team that’s one piece away into contention. But if you have to give up all of those pieces to even get him, it could be viewed as a lateral move.

There’s been smoke behind Markkanen to Oklahoma City for quite some time. But given Utah’s reported price, it seems like it was never going to add up. An overflow of draft picks wasn’t going to get a deal like this done.

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