The Utah Jazz are holding their breath regarding another of their top players.
All-Star forward Lauri Markkanen will undergo an MRI after sustaining a potential right ankle and right hip injury in practice Wednesday, according to The Salt Lake Tribune’s Kevin Reynolds. It remains to be seen how much time he could miss.
Advertisement
Utah is already without a trio of big men due to season-ending injuries to Jusuf Nurkić, Jaren Jackson Jr. and Walker Kessler. Losing Markkanen, who is averaging a career-high 26.7 points per game, for any amount of time would be a significant blow.
Of course, the Jazz are hardly sweating this season with an 18-40 record. The team is one of many in the NBA seen as tanking, to the point that the NBA made an example of the Jazz earlier this month with a $500,000 fine for what NBA commissioner Adam Silver described as “overt” tanking behavior.
While The Athletic’s Tony Jones initially reported Wednesday that the NBA was sending independent doctors to Utah to verify the results of Markkanen’s MRI, he walked back that report Thursday. Jones clarified that the NBA was reviewing Markkanen’s medicals, which is standard practice, but are not sending doctors to Utah to take a closer look at things. Jones apologized for the error.
Advertisement
The Jazz currently have the sixth-worst record in the NBA, behind the Sacramento Kings, Indiana Pacers, Brooklyn Nets, Washington Wizards and New Orleans Pelicans. Pretty much all of the above teams save the Pelicans (whose 2026 first-rounder is going to the Atlanta Hawks) have good reason to punt on the rest of this season with one of the best draft classes in NBA history arriving this summer.