After he signed a massive contract extension over the summer that is a reported five-year, $238 million deal, there is an expectation that Utah Jazz forward Lauri Markkanen will not only be the Jazz’s best player, but that he’ll be one of the NBA’s best over the next several seasons.
But where does Markkanen stack up now among the league’s elite?
Leading up to the 2024-25 season, several publications have released rankings of their top 100 players in the NBA (there will be roughly 450 players in the league on opening night), and Markkanen consistently ranks in the 31-34 range.
Both The Ringer and CBS, for example, have Markkanen at No. 31.
The Ringer calls Markkanen a “Positional anomaly who leverages the threat of his lights-out jumper for all it’s worth.”
CBS, meanwhile, writes, “Markkanen is 27 years old, just entering his prime, but the Jazz aren’t close to competing. You wonder about that marriage of those timelines, but you can bet Danny Ainge has a plan and that Markkanen, a seven-foot sniper who averaged 23 and 8 last season on a better true-shooting clip that Kevin Durant, is central in it.”
ESPN, meanwhile, has Markkanen at No. 33.
“The five-year, $238 million contract Markkanen signed off a renegotiation and extension is strong proof that the Jazz believe that the 27-year-old forward can be a foundation player after the franchise’s rebuild pays dividends,” writes Tim MacMahon. “There aren’t many 7-foot scorers as versatile as Markkanen, who has averaged 24.5 points per game on .490/.395/.885 shooting splits in his two seasons in Utah.”
HoopsHype has Markkanen just a few spots down from 31, at No. 34, writing, “Even despite proving he can be an All-Star as a team’s No. 1, Markkanen might actually be best suited to be a second or third option on a playoff contender, something he would have been able to display in Golden State. Instead, though, at least for 2024-25 (the Finnish big man is ineligible to be traded for all of next season), we’ll get to see Markkanen continue to put up big numbers on a rebuilding team.
That’s not the worst thing for Utah fans, at least, who will be able to enjoy watching Markkanen’s tough bucket-getting from the 4-spot and his floor-spacing ability from beyond the arc.”
Markkanen, meanwhile, has the 40th-highest player rating on the NBA2K25 video game with an 86 overall.
Just one other Jazz player appears in any of the top 100 player rankings that have been published by major outlets, as Collin Sexton sneaks in the late 90s on a few of them.
Sexton is ranked the 97th-best player in the league by The Ringer and is No. 98 on HoopsHype’s list.
The Ringer calls him a “Gifted scoring guard who turned himself into one of the game’s most committed drivers,” while HoopsHype writes, “The fiery and competitive Collin Sexton had a very good season in 2023-24 for the Utah Jazz, averaging nearly 19 points and five assists per game on 48.7 percent shooting from the floor and 39.4 percent from three as both a starter and bench piece.
With two years left on his contract at a reasonable price (he’s owed under $40 million combined over that span, a borderline steal considering today’s salaries) and with Utah not all that close to contention, that could make Sexton a trade target for NBA teams this summer, though teams may be wary of meeting Jazz shot-caller Danny Ainge’s asking prices.”
