Utah Jazz Emerging as Potential Trade Deadline Buyers

While the Utah Jazz are often linked as a team gearing up to sell off some of their rostered talent in order to keep the chains moving on their rebuilding, long-term efforts, it seems like new rumors could be hinting towards the front office taking a different approach to that trend at this year's trade deadline.

NBA insider Marc Stein on The Stein Line recently dove into some of the latest trade chatter revolving around Lauri Markkanen and the chances he gets dealt at this year's deadline, where the conversation began to shift in another direction: rather than shipping out talent, they're a bit more likely to look towards adding new talent in.

"More teams than not that we speak to are increasingly convinced that the Jazz are more likely to try to add to their Markkanen-led core this Trade Season rather than trade Markkanen away. Markkanen is averaging a career-high 28.5 points per game in his ninth season to build on a monster national team summer for Finland."

"It’s true that the 28-year-old has still yet to log a single playoff minute in the NBA, but he unabashedly loves Salt Lake City. There is a strong case to be made, once you take it all in, for building around the 7-foot Finn.

Lauri Markkanen Could Lead the Jazz to Become Buyers

The Jazz's hesitancy to ship off Markkanen has been known for some time, and that feeling likely becomes even stronger with his red-hot start to the season. He's averaging a career-high 28.5 points per game, returning to All-Star form, and will likely gain his second appearance this season if things hold to form.

But by keeping Markkanen in town, perhaps the Jazz could take things one step further by looking to add additional talent to surround him later in the year closer to the trade deadline, even if not totally competitive to make a playoff, or even Play-In push at season's end.