Utah Jazz's Lauri Markkanen Poised for Bounce Back Season

Markkanen is currently representing his home country of Finland for the 2025 EuroBasket tournament. While group play doesn't begin until August 27, Markkanen has played in three exhibition games to prepare for the tournament, where he's been absolutely dominant.

Markkanen is one of the best players participating in the tournament along with Nikola Jokic, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Luka Doncic, and others. His shooting, athleticism, and size are a combination that few players can match up with. If he can continue his excellent play, Finland could make a deep run in the tournament, especially with them playing host to the tourney.

Down Season

While Markkanen has been terrific in a Jazz uniform, his production fell off slightly in his third year with the team. After averaging 24.5 points per game on near 50/40/90 shooting splits in his first two seasons with the organization, his production dropped to 19 points on 42/34/87 splits.

It's fairly easy to understand the nuance of why Markkanen's production dropped this past season, though. First off, he seemed to be hampered by a back injury at times this past season. Even when he was on the court, he didn't look to be moving as fluidly as he had in the past, and his shooting splits also didn't reflect what a healthy Markkanen would shoot.

Secondly, and maybe more importantly, the Jazz were not trying to win basketball games a year ago. As active participants in the sag for Flagg race, which the Jazz won and then painfully lost weeks later, Markkanen played a career low 47 games. When he was playing, the Jazz lacked an identity and cohesion, in large part due to the musical chair situation with who was playing, and Markkanen struggled to settle in.

Looking Ahead

Despite last season's struggles, I expect Markkanen to channel his inner Jay-Z and reintroduce himself to basketball fans this season. After all, Markkanen is arguably one of the 30 best players in the world when he's clicking.

The other thing working in his favor is that the Jazz, while still among the youngest and least ready to win teams in the West right now, have shared that they plan to attack this upcoming season with a different plan than last.

With Markkanen consistently in the lineup and Will Hardy given the freedom to manage his roster, the Jazz could be surprisingly competitive this season. We've already seen the seven-footer use a dominant EuroBasket tournament to prepare himself for a terrific NBA season during his Jazz tenure. I expect this to be another example.

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