NBA Rumors: 5 left-field trades to blow up the NBA trade deadline

3. Jazz trade Lauri Markkanen to Thunder

Over at Basketball Poetry, Mike Shearer put together a tremendous piece about Lauri Markkanen's historic scoring output on assisted shot attempts. He is the 25th-highest scorer in the NBA and 84 percent of his shots are assisted. That is mind-boggling and wholly unique to Markkanen and Utah's singular scheme.

The Utah Jazz aren't keen to trade Markkanen, which is understandable. He's on an affordable contract for the next two seasons. He's clearly bedrock material. Smart front offices don't part ways with 26-year-old, 7-foot sharpshooters with elite efficiency metrics across the board. Markkanen is flat-out one of the best shooters in the league. Off movement, trailing in transition, working pick-and-pops — there's no way to fully contain the aptly nicknamed 'Finnisher.'

Still, Utah's roster around Markkanen is relatively unmolded. The Jazz could get a lot for Markkanen on the trade market. If the Jazz do decide to test the waters, no team has more trade ammo than the Oklahoma City Thunder. Fittingly, few teams are better positioned to get the most out of Markkanen's unique skill set.

Markkanen is the best in the world at finishing off of teammates. The Jazz don't even have high-level creators, but Will Hardy effectively deploys Utah's guard gaggle and schemes up various looks for Markkanen all over the floor. In OKC, he would team up with the NBA's preeminent driver in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander — a walking paint touch and gifted advantage-creator — in addition to Jalen Williams, Chet Holmgren, Lu Dort, and fellow Jazz transfer Kris Dunn, all of whom have varying degrees of playmaking utility.

OKC would have size, shot creation, and shooting at every position. Markkanen would elevate OKC's already-great offense to the next level. He's the perfect play-finisher to complement the Thunder's hydra-esque lineup. This is a particularly fun hypothetical.