Lauri Markkanen sat on the edge of the raised podium floor and stretched his legs across the carpet.

The 7-foot-1 forward had just finished a Jazz practice, but there was no shortness of breath — or brief responses — as he answered a reporter’s questions.

The only real sign of Markkanen’s fatigue was the small beads of sweat on his forehead that he periodically wiped off with the white towel draped over his shoulder.

He was relaxed.

After all, the 29-year-old will soon start his 10th NBA season. And he’d given hundreds, if not thousands, of interviews before.

Finally, the last question arrived — it was the question tied to his career.

“You’re that active player who’s played in most games without making the playoffs — ” this reporter began.

Markkanen knew the narrative well, and he jumped in.

“Actually, not true,” he interjected. “I’ve missed games due to injury — Miles Bridges went by me.”

Markkanen was correct. Bridges overtook him with 501 games, to his 492. Still, Markkanen leads active players in career points without a playoff appearance.

Those stats, though, don’t seem to bother him.

He believes it’s all in the past, and he’s focused on the now.

“I think it just hasn’t happened to me,” he told The Salt Lake Tribune. “Like, I’ve been a part of teams that haven’t been as successful, and like the chemistry piece maybe didn’t hit as well as we wanted to, or there’s been injuries.

“Obviously, I want to be in the playoffs every year, and it just hasn’t happened to me, but it’s not an extra burden on my back heading into this year.”

This is an important year for Markkanen and the Jazz. For the first time in his Utah tenure, the Jazz have expectations. Making the playoffs is just one part of his and the Jazz’s goals.

The ultimate one, of course, is to win a championship. Still, just a playoff appearance can help rewrite the narrative around his career.

And he understands that.

“It is part of my story, but it doesn’t have to define the ending,” he said.

Expectations, finally

Markkanen arrived in Utah before the 2022-23 season as the centerpiece of the Donovan Mitchell trade.

That season, the Finnish native became an All-Star. His points increased to 25.6 from 14.8 in the previous season in Cleveland, and his efficiency skyrocketed.

The result was also the most wins he’s seen in his Jazz tenure: 37. But it also showed the Jazz’s priorities. Utah traded Mike Conley at the trade deadline and limped to the finish.

Over the next three seasons, the Jazz won 31, 17 and 22 games as the organization chased lottery odds over wins.

Markkanen went from a rising 25-year-old All-Star to the face of a rebuild.

That wasn’t easy for Markkanen or the Jazz. Frustration surfaced at different points in each season.

Losing takes a toll — tanking or not. And it required honest conversations between Markkanen and coach Will Hardy.

“I want to win, too. We all do,” Hardy said. “When you’re not winning, there’s a collective frustration, but we’ve made sure to communicate and recognize that misguided anger is very dangerous.

“We’re not going to take those things out on our own group. We’re all in it together. We all want the same thing. We all want to win … to be a championship-caliber team one day.”

The path to a championship team will take time — has already taken time. Hardy and the Jazz understand that.

Most sportsbooks project Utah at an over/under at 36.5 wins. Markkanen, though, believes the Jazz can be much better than that.

“I think we all see how good of a group we have,” Markkanen said. “We see the talent we have on the court when we scrimmage; it might be a different guy every day that gets it going. We are really talented.”

Markkanen feels the excitement among Jazz fans, too — both in person and online. And he’s pretty online, so there’s a good chance he’s seen a post if you’ve tagged him in it.

He appreciates Jazz fans for supporting the team even amidst the rebuild. And he’s ready to reward those fans’ patience.

“We’re really positive about our group, and we really think that we can do big things,” he said. “Obviously, I’ve been around for this; it’s my 10th year, so I also know that every year has its own challenges. You can’t predict what it’s going to be, but I think we’re all getting ready, like we’re staying positive and working together.

“I think our locker room is really healthy, and the way we communicate with the coaching staff, like I think we’re ready to get going.”

That open dialogue with the coaching staff and head coach Will Hardy didn’t happen overnight.

A relationship built on friendship

It didn’t take very long for Markkanen to realize that he wanted to play for Hardy.

It happened after one talk.

“The first thing he said to me was, ‘The player I was at the EuroBasket, he wants that version here,’” Markkanen recalled.

That player? The one who put up 27.9 points and 8.1 rebounds per game to lead Finland to a seventh-place finish.

“That really hit me; he wants me to be played the same way and (with the) same aggression that I played for the national team,” Markkanen said. “I think that’s where our relationship [started]. I was like, ‘I can do that,’ and he was excited about that.”

Four years later, Markkanen says they understand each other on a human level, and he considers Hardy a friend as well as a coach.

That relationship has helped them navigate some difficult seasons.

Sometimes Hardy would call Markkanen after a game to talk about what went wrong and where Markkanen needed to be better. Other times, it was Markkanen who reached out to Hardy to ask how he could help the team more.

“He tells me the harsh truth sometimes, like I’m messing up or whatever,” Markkanen said. “So I love to have that, and I like [to have] a coach who coaches me hard and pushes me. I want to be as good a player as I can be. So he’s definitely pushing me every day.”

Their conversations haven’t been limited to the frustrations of the present. They’ve also focused on what the Jazz could become.

“Lauri and I have had a ton of honest conversations about whether it’s individual frustration or our desires or hopes and dreams for the future,” Hardy said. “I think those things are very important to say out loud.”

So, it was a no-brainer for Markkanen to sign a contract extension in 2024, even amid uncertainty about when the Jazz would become a winning team.

Yes, he and his family love Utah, and the financial security of signing a contract extension was nice, but the main draw to stay was Hardy and the Jazz’s front office.

He was impressed by the resumes of those within the Jazz’s front office, such as Danny (and later Austin) Ainge. And Hardy’s coaching style and ideas got him to buy in year one.

A lot has changed since that first year.

He’s a different person and player than he was when he first came to Salt Lake as a 25-year-old.

“As a player, he’s sort of redefined his standing in terms of what people think of him, how they think of him playing on the court, like maybe the style,” Hardy said. “That’s a credit to him and all the work he’s put in. I think he’s improved in a variety of areas, but [especially] the maturity that he’s shown throughout the last four years, the way he interacts with teammates.”

Even as losses piled up, Markkanen and the Jazz took the long view. Hardy put him in different situations on the court to expand his game, and Markkanen discovered his voice as a leader.

While other veterans moved on through free agency or trades, Markkanen stayed, trusting that the rebuild would work.

Now, the Jazz believe they have the talent to take a meaningful step forward. For Markkanen, this season offers his clearest opportunity yet to reach the playoffs and change the narrative surrounding his career.

His story isn’t finished.

And after years of rebuilding, the Jazz are ready to see what the next chapter holds.

“We are not a finished product yet as individuals,” Hardy said. “We’re not a finished product yet as a group, and we have to maintain that focus that each day is just a piece in our story as we are becoming. What we ultimately become will be a result of all the work that’s gone into the process and how everybody carries themselves through the process.”