More Lauri Markkanen latest and a look ahead to Olympic men's basketball

Plus the usual Numbers Game goodness in this Tuesday Newsletter Extravaganza

Let's lead things off in the Tuesday Newsletter Extravaganza, as promised, with the clearest possible breakdown we can muster from the Lauri Markkanen news we uncovered last week.

This Friday report contained the revelation that Markkanen — should he renegotiate and extend his contract in Utah on the first day he's allowed to on Aug. 6 — would be eligible to be traded for only one day during the 2024-25 season:

That's because league rules stipulate that a player cannot be traded for six months after signing an extension. Six months from Aug. 6 is Feb. 6, which also happens to be next season's trade deadline day with the buzzer sounding at 3 PM ET.

So ...

The easiest way to think of Markkanen's future, after numerous teams (most notably Golden State and Sacramento) registered serious trade interest in the 2023 All-Star in recent weeks, is understanding the following three scenarios:

🏀 If Markkanen remains on his current contract, he will continue to be tradeable from now through the Feb. 6 deadline with his $18 million expiring salary before becoming an unrestricted free agent next June 30. Teams that have pursued Markkanen this offseason, like the Warriors and Kings, can continue to try to engage Utah in trade talks on Markkanen until Aug. 6 and then beyond in the absence of an extension, although the intensity of those talks appear to have faded somewhat amid a rising belief that the Jazz would prefer to extend Markkanen first before moving forward in any direction.

🏀 If Markkanen signs an extension on Aug. 6 — which, again, is the first day he is eligible and requires Utah's cap space to complete a renegotiation-and-extension like Orlando just executed with Jonathan Isaac — he can be traded on Feb. 6 and only Feb. 6 during the 2024-25 season.

🏀 If Markkanen signs an extension with the Jazz on Aug. 7 or thereafter, he is ineligible to be traded until after the 2024-25 season.  

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Olympics Corner

On the latest edition of #thisleague UNCUT, my podcast partner Chris Haynes asked me if I was headed to Paris soon to cover Olympic basketball, presuming that I would be given my well-chronicled fondness for both international basketball and Europe. 

The answer, though, is no.

It figures to be my loss because Olympic basketball is always special. The field only features 12 countries, compared to 32 in the FIBA World Cup, which makes the battles just to qualify absolutely fierce.

You've heard this complaint from me more than once recently ... how unfortunate it was that the 24 teams playing for a measly four Olympic berths from July 2 through July 7 in last-chance qualifying in four different countries were always destined be overshadowed by NBA free agency.

What you might have missed out on over the weekend ...

🏀 Greece beat Luka Dončić-led Slovenia in the semifinals and Croatia (featuring Ivica Zubac and Dario Šarić) in the final in Piraeus to make Giannis Antetokounmpo an Olympian for the first time. Vassilis Spanoulis, who became a Dončić favorite in his playing days as a legendary lead guard, has had a tremendous impact as Antetokounmpo's national team coach, steering Greece to its first Olympic berth since 2008. Giannis, meanwhile, has been named as one of two flag-bearers for Greece alongside race walker Antigoni Drisbioti for the Olympic opening ceremonies on July 26.

🏀 Puerto Rico secured its first trip to the Olympics since 2004 — sparking these moving celebrations starring New Orleans' Jose Alvarado and Carlos Arroyo — by winning a six-team group on home soil that featured two very strong European entrants: Lithuania (with Sacramento's Domantas Sabonis) and Italy. I urge you to scroll down to the comments section from my latest This Week In Basketball column published Monday and read the first-hand accounts from longtime subscriber Alejandro Proskauer, who attended the games in Puerto Rico and painted a beautiful picture of what the victory means to the team, its fans and the whole country.

🏀 Brazil was the only team to win one of the four six-team qualifying groups without homecourt advantage ... but perhaps things might have been different if Latvia had Kristaps Porziņģis. Minus the injured Celtic in Riga, Latvia absorbed a 94-69 rout in the winner-take-all final to fall one win short of its first Olympic appearance in men's basketball as an independent nation since 1936.

🏀 The Bahamas' Cinderella bid to reach the Olympics likewise fell one win short in Spain. So agonizingly close for Deandre Ayton, Eric Gordon, Buddy Hield and coach Chris DeMarco (from the Golden State Warriors) ... but beating Spain in Spain remains a tall, tall order even though both Pau and Marc Gasol are now retired. Spain and Greece will now join Canada and Australia in an absolutely brutal Group A in Paris. The Americans are in Group C with Puerto Rico, Serbia and South Sudan.

The enclosed FIBA graphic shows all 12 nations that will compete in Paris in men's basketball, headlined of course by a star-studded American roster and the French hosts led by Victor Wembanyama and Rudy Gobert:

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Numbers Game

🏀 35

It hit me recently with a flight to Las Vegas looming that the first NBA summer league I covered — 1989 at Loyola Marymount University — was 35 years ago. #thisleague

🏀 3

One major flaw in my planning: Attending summer league in Vegas means I will be unable to attend Major League Baseball's All-Star Game in nearby Arlington, Texas, next Tuesday, costing me my shot to see Paul Skenes make his All-Star bow. Skenes is the third MLB All-Star from my high school (El Toro HS), joining the Gold Glove duo of Nolan Arenado and Matt Chapman. I haven't seen Skenes pitch yet in person but hope to rectify that ASAP.

This is an ESPN graphic on Skenes' rookie season posted via social media.

🏀 1

Gotta give a special shoutout to Chapman, who has made only one career All-Star appearance but hit The Stein Line exacta by attending both El Toro and Cal State Fullerton.

🏀 0

Interesting factoid that bears underlining given the considerable trade interest leaguewide in Utah's Lauri Markkanen: The 7-foot Finn has yet to appear in an NBA playoff game. 

🏀 403

Markkanen's 403 career games without tasting the playoffs is the highest total among active NBA players (via Basketball Reference). Charlotte's Miles Bridges is second among active players at 360 career games without a playoff appearance.

🏀 39

The perils of writing without a deep team around me: Somehow I assembled a list of notable free agents who have changed teams this offseason in the lead item in Monday's This Week In Basketball compilation and managed to omit 39-year-old Chris Paul ... even though I had an item on Paul later in the piece. Aging ain't fun, y'all.

🏀 17

Duke-bound Cooper Flagg is indeed the first college player on USA Basketball's Select team since Marcus Smart and Doug McDermott way back in 2013 .... but don't forget that Flagg is much younger than those two were and hasn't played a single game at the college level yet.

🏀 18

Flagg turns 18 on Dec. 21.

🏀 8

 Did you catch that Paul George will wear No. 8 as a 76er?

🏀 31

And that Klay Thompson, paying homage to one of his heroes — Reggie Miller — will wear No. 31 in Dallas?

🏀 3.4

Important note from ESPN's Bobby Marks: Among the reasons various teams have found financial flexibility so difficult to create this offseason is the mere 3.4% rise in the salary cap from last season ($136.021 million) to next season ($140.588 million). Marks notes that the jump was closer to 10% in each of the past two offseasons.

🏀 10

Early projections for next season have the salary cap rising closer to 10% for the 2025-26 season. The projection this time a year ago was in the 4% range, per Marks, before coming in at just 3.4%.

🏀 35

My fellow Substacker

Justin Kubatko

has a new piece out on some of the best guards we've ever seen who flourished after their 35th birthday:

Old Guards, New Tricks