Coming into this NBA season, most expected the Utah Jazz to be a bad team.
They decided to blow it up after years of underachieving by trading All-Stars Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell, leaving them with a cast of young prospects and spare junkyard parts.
But against all odds, Utah is 8-3 on the year, giving it the second-best record in the always competitive Western Conference.
Perhaps the biggest reason for their hot start has been the play of forward Lauri Markkanen, who seems to be blossoming in his sixth pro season.
He’s averaging 21.8 points on 51.7 percent shooting and 9.4 rebounds per game, which look like All-Star-caliber numbers.
Who would’ve thought he would make such a big jump this year?
Markkanen Seems To Be Climbing The Ladder
The 7-foot, 240-pound forward was the seventh overall pick in the 2017 NBA Draft by the Minnesota Timberwolves, and he was quickly traded to the Chicago Bulls in the Zach LaVine/Jimmy Butler deal.
In his first few seasons in the league, Markkanen established himself as someone who had a decent outside shooting stroke while being a so-so defender and rebounder.
He looked like nothing more than a solid complementary player who needed to be teamed up with one or two superstars he could play off of.
But so far in his first season with the Jazz, he has already had two 30-plus-point games, and he appears to be their best all-around player.
Lauri Markkanen brought it on both ends, dropping 31 PTS and logging a career-high 4 BLK in the @utahjazz victory to stay undefeated at home! #TakeNote@MarkkanenLauri: 31 PTS, 11 REB, 4 BLK (career-high) pic.twitter.com/gKmDuV7X6v
— NBA (@NBA) November 1, 2022
There have been a few other players, such as the Memphis Grizzlies’ Desmond Bane, the Sacramento Kings’ De’Aaron Fox, and the San Antonio Spurs’ Keldon Johnson, who also seem to be taking that next step forward.
But it was easier to see the three of them doing so, as opposed to Markkanen, who has averaged at least 15 points a game only once in his career prior to this year.
This makes him the league’s biggest surprise so far this year.
NEXT: Are The Utah Jazz The NBA's Biggest Surprise So Far?