Lauri Markkanen's Case for NBA MIP

The Utah Jazz were supposed to be at the bottom of the NBA standings during the 2022-23 campaign. They traded away their two best players in Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell this offseason and brought in Will Hardy to take over as a first-year head coach. While all signs pointed to a rebuild in Utah, that hasn't been the case through the first quarter of the season. The Jazz have a winning record and find themselves ranked in the top 10 in the Western Conference.

A lot of their success can be attributed to the play of Lauri Markkanen, who is in his first season with the Jazz after being traded to Utah in the Donovan Mitchell package. The 6-11 power forward is having one of the best seasons of his career and has found himself in the running for the Most Improved Player award. He currently sits at +450 in the odds race behind only Shai Gilgeous-Alexander at -150 and Tyrese Haliburton at +400. The next closest player is Desmond Bane who sits at +2500. In other words, this is a three-man race.

Markkanen has been thriving in his new role with the Jazz, leading them in scoring with 22.2 points and 8.5 rebounds per game. Not to mention he is shooting 52.8% from the field and has five 30-point games. He's turned himself into the type of foundational piece that the Bulls hoped he would be when he came to Chicago in the Jimmy Butler trade.

In his four seasons with the Bulls, Markkanen never shot higher than 48% from the field or 40% from 3. Those marks were even worse in his lone season in Cleveland last year when he shot 44.5% from the field and 35% from deep. However, the way Cleveland used the former first-round pick gave Utah a glimpse into how to get the most out of him. With Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen in the front court, the Cavs had a massive starting lineup, which meant putting Markkanen at the small forward position made the most sense. He turned into more of a catch-and-shoot player and was able to take advantage of matchups with undersized players.

Over his six seasons in the NBA, Markkanen went from a highly-touted seventh-overall pick to bench player in Chicago, to beginning to build himself back up in Cleveland. Now, Markkanen is the go-to player for the Jazz and has taken a team that was only supposed to win around 24 games this season, to a likely playoff contender. Through the first 25 games of the season, he's displayed a vast skillset that has made him a multidimensional threat. Whether it's attacking off the dribble, playing inside or knocking down shots from deep, Markkanen is thriving in Utah's system. And when you take into account that the MIP award is essentially just a three-man race, a ticket on Markkanen at +450 doesn't sound all that bad.

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