Lauri Markkanen has been traded twice, and he wasn't the main piece either time. Chicago got him as part of the Jimmy Butler trade, and Utah got him as part of the Donovan Mitchell trade. Both times he turned into the player people remember from the deal. He's the son of two Finnish basketball players, a Most Improved Player, an All-Star starter in his own building, a Finnish army conscript, and the best player Finland has produced. He also spent three seasons as the rebuild's most valuable trade chip without being traded, and this year he gets to play for a team that's trying to win.
A basketball family in Jyväskylä
Markkanen grew up in Jyväskylä, about three hours north of Helsinki. Basketball runs in the family. His father, Pekka Markkanen, is a 6-10 center who played college ball at Kansas (he started for the Jayhawks in 1989-90) and then spent years on the Finnish national team. His mother, Riikka, played too. Of his two older brothers, Miikka played basketball professionally until injuries ended his career, and Eero went into pro soccer, according to Sam Vecenie's 2015 CBS Sports profile.
He told Vecenie what that house was like:
"We had a very competitive family, always challenging each other in everything. We played basketball, soccer, ice hockey, everything. No one wanted to lose."
He also gave a very Finnish answer about where his jumper came from: "I would shoot and work on my game in my back yard even though it was minus-30 (degrees celsius)." As a teenager he moved to Helsinki to train and go to school at the Helsinki Basketball Academy, and its coach, Antti Koskelainen, called him "a quick learner, very coachable. Hard-working guy."
Arizona, the Butler trade, and two quiet stops
He picked Arizona and played one season for Sean Miller. In 2016-17 he averaged 15.6 points and 7.2 rebounds and shot 42.3% from three, made first-team All-Pac-12, and was a third-team All-American, per Arizona Athletics. The Wildcats went 32-5 and lost to Xavier in the Sweet 16.
Minnesota drafted him seventh in 2017, and he was traded the same night. The Bulls sent Jimmy Butler and the No. 16 pick to the Timberwolves for Zach LaVine, Kris Dunn, and the No. 7 pick, which was Markkanen, per the Bulls. Butler was the headliner, and Markkanen was the rebuild's long-term bet.
He started all 68 games he played as a rookie, averaged 15.2 points and 7.5 rebounds, and made the All-Rookie team. Then the problems started. A few weeks before his second season, he suffered a high-grade lateral sprain of his right elbow in practice and was given a six-to-eight-week timeline, per CBS Sports. When he came back, he had his best Chicago season: 18.7 points and 9.0 rebounds in 52 games.
After that, his numbers dropped. He scored 14.7 points a game in 2019-20, and by 2020-21 he was coming off the bench in about half his games. He and the Bulls couldn't agree on a rookie-scale extension before the December 2020 deadline, which made him a restricted free agent, per Eurohoops. In August 2021 he went to Cleveland in a three-team sign-and-trade (Larry Nance Jr. went to Portland) on a four-year deal worth about $67 million, per CBS Sports.
In Cleveland he mostly played small forward, as the third 7-footer next to Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen. He averaged 14.8 points, the Cavs made the Play-In, and the role made him look like a complementary player. That's how most of the league saw him when the next trade came.
The Mitchell trade, and the year everything changed
On Sept. 1, 2022, Utah sent Donovan Mitchell to Cleveland for Markkanen, Collin Sexton, Ochai Agbaji, three unprotected first-round picks, and two pick swaps, per News 5 Cleveland. The picks were the main return. Markkanen said later on the Draymond Green Show that he understood it, via Jazz On SI: "That was just the business of basketball." He added: "But I can tell you it was a blessing now for myself and my career."
His first Utah season was his breakout: 25.6 points and 8.6 rebounds on 49.9% shooting and 39.2% from three. He made the 2023 All-Star Game as a reserve, then replaced the injured Zion Williamson in the starting lineup, per Eurohoops. That meant he started the All-Star Game in Salt Lake City. In April he won Most Improved Player over Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Brunson, per CBS Sports. Finland's sports journalists then named him their 2023 Athlete of the Year. MTV Uutiset reported that no Finn who plays an indoor court sport had won it before (translated from Finnish).
Conscript Markkanen
Finnish men have to finish their military service by age 30. Markkanen had already postponed his, first while he was at Arizona and again for national-team commitments. He told ESPN, via KSL: "It's mandatory. We have to do it, but at the same, time we take pride in it, too."
He reported on April 17, 2023, to the Defence Forces Sports School at Santahamina in Helsinki, and Yle reported the service was expected to last 165 days. The Tribune's Alex Vejar reported that he pitched tents, made fires, and learned to shoot, that he got leave to accept the Most Improved award, and that he was allowed to play for Finland at the World Cup while still serving. The Tribune also asked how good a shot he'd become. His answer was "Solid." Asked what he got out of it, he told Eurohoops: "It is a good experience for me to have as a leader moving forward." He finished that fall, per Yle (in Finnish).
Finland's best player
He played his first EuroBasket in 2017, when Finland co-hosted the tournament in Helsinki, as a Bulls rookie who hadn't played an NBA game yet. In 2022 he scored 43 against Croatia in the Round of 16, a Finnish national-team record at a major event. That sent Finland to its first EuroBasket quarterfinal since 1967, per FIBA. His explanation: "I just had one of those nights."
EuroBasket 2025 was bigger. Finland beat Georgia to reach its first EuroBasket semifinal, lost to eventual champion Germany, then lost the bronze game to Greece 92-89 after Markkanen had 19 points and 10 rebounds, per NBA.com. Fourth place is the best finish in Finland's history, and FIBA put him on the tournament's All-Star Second Team. He went back this summer for 2027 World Cup qualifying, including a 23-point game in a win over Hungary in July, per KSL.
The max deal, and the tank years
In the summer of 2024, Golden State pushed hard for him. The Jazz wanted Brandin Podziemski in any deal, the Warriors wouldn't include him, and on Aug. 7 Markkanen signed a five-year, $238 million deal, per CBS Sports. Signing one day after he became eligible meant he couldn't be traded that season. He told ESPN, via the Deseret News:
"Once I got traded to Utah, the organization and city immediately embraced me and it's been a family-oriented place — especially with me having my own little kids now."
The next two seasons were hard on him. Utah was tanking, and he sat a lot. The league fined the Jazz $100,000 over his absences in March 2025. Then in February 2026 it fined them $500,000 for pulling him and Jaren Jackson Jr. before the fourth quarter of games against Orlando and Miami, per The Salt Lake Tribune. Will Hardy's explanation: "I sat Lauri because he was on a minutes restriction." Markkanen still averaged a career-high 26.7 points last season, including a 51-point game against Phoenix in October that was the first 50-point game by a Jazz player since Karl Malone in 1998, per ESPN. An ankle and hip injury in late February, later called a hip impingement, held him to 42 games.
The trade rumors never really stopped, but the Jazz kept him. When they traded for Jackson in February, CBS Sports wrote that Utah had "turned away all efforts from opposing teams to steal Lauri Markkanen."
A summer in Finland, and a preseason with a sore neck
In August, Hardy, Keyonte George, Jackson, and owner Ryan Smith flew to Helsinki to train with Markkanen during Finland's camp, per the Deseret News. They watched him score 17 in a win over Iceland in Espoo, per Eurohoops. At media day he said, per Eurohoops: "Them making the sacrifice of their summer for a couple of days to come visit me, that means a lot to me."
The Jackson pairing is what we're all watching. At media day Austin Ainge called them the team's "two best players," and Jackson described Markkanen to the Deseret News like this:
"(Lauri is) so dynamic — the way he moves off the ball and his athleticism paired with his shooting is crazy. ... I mean, he's a 7-1 wing who can shoot, so I feel like he complements anybody."
In the preseason opener he scored 17 in under 14 minutes against Denver. Then the Jazz ruled him out of the rematch with neck soreness. He returned against San Antonio and scored 11 in 19 minutes on 3-of-7 shooting. Our take: the neck looks like a preseason precaution, but given the last two seasons, we're going to keep an eye on it.
Role
He's still the first option. When a possession needs a bucket, it goes to him. What's different this year is where he plays: Ainge talked about him and Jackson covering the 3 and 4, the 4 and 5, or the 3 and 5, and so far Hardy has used him mostly as a 7-foot wing next to Jackson and a center. His shooting pulls the other team's big away from the rim, and that's what gives George, Peterson, and Bailey room to drive. With Jackson next to him, he also doesn't have to be the only big who can score.
2026-27 prediction
A full season is the whole story. With 65-plus games and more teammates who need shots, his scoring dips a little to around 24 a night but gets easier, and his three-point percentage moves back toward the 39.9% he shot in 2023-24. If the Jazz are in the Play-In race in February, he's back in the All-Star conversation (see our season preview). The risk is the same as the last two years: games played.
Sources: CBS Sports, Arizona Athletics, Chicago Bulls / NBA.com, CBS Sports, Eurohoops, CBS Sports, News 5 Cleveland, Jazz On SI, Eurohoops, CBS Sports, MTV Uutiset, KSL, Yle (Finnish), The Salt Lake Tribune, Eurohoops, FIBA, Eurohoops, NBA.com, FIBA, KSL, CBS Sports, Deseret News, The Salt Lake Tribune, ESPN, Deseret News, CBS Sports, Deseret News, Eurohoops, Eurohoops, Deseret News, Jazz On SI, and box scores via NBA.com.