On August 7th Lauri Markkanen received a five-year $238 million contract from the Utah Jazz. This was a re-negotiation of Markkanen’s previous contract, a four-year $67.5 million deal with the Cleveland Cavaliers signed in August of 2021, which would have been active through the 2024-2025 season. A player is eligible to re-negotiate their contract on the third year anniversary of a four or five year deal.

 

The Jazz used available cap space this year to re-negotiate Markkanen’s contract. He was supposed to make $18 million in the 2024-2025 season and now he will make $42.2 million. In return, Markkanen extends with the Jazz for less than the max. Had Markkanen played this season out and then re-signed with the Jazz he could have signed a 5 year max contract which would have totalled $269 million. Player salaries on the Jazz previously totalled under the 90% spending requirement the NBA imposes on teams to meet by the first day of the NBA season, so they had money to spend.

 

The other notable detail of this extension is that it was signed on August 7th and not August 6th. Once a player signs contract there is a six-month restriction from when an NBA player negotiates a contract to when he can be traded. If signed on August 6th this would have lined up with February 6th which is the trade deadline. Because Markkanen signed on the 7th, he is now ineligible to be traded until next offseason. The Jazz are projected to be near the bottom of the West in the 2024-2025 season. Markkanen is an all-star caliber player and would have surely been coveted by teams looking to improve their roster with a mid-season acquisition in pursuit of an NBA title. Markkanen effectively takes his name out of trade rumours for this season and limits ongoing distractions around a player who has already been traded three times in his career and for a team who has with this extension signalled to the league that they wish to retain their star player at least for the short-term future.

 

The final breakdown of the Markkanen contract is:

2024-2025: $42,176,400

2025-2026: $46,394,100

2026-2027: $46,113,154

2027-2028: $49,824,681

2028-2029: $53,536,209


 

If the Jazz plan on trading Markkanen in the following years a contract that descends in value or remains flat would have increased Markkanen’s trade value, however the extension signed is ascending in nature. Regardless, as long as Markkanen maintains his current level of play or close to it he will still be viewed as an asset worth acquiring to other teams around the league.

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Published August 10, 2024.