With the Jazz tanking and trying to land a top-three spot in the lottery, nobody expected to see Markkanen again this season.Except for NBA league executives. Markkanen, an All-Star in 2023, qualifies as a "star player" under the league's Player Participation Policy — the policy put in place a couple of years ago to ensure the league's biggest names are on the court for regular season games (trying to slow the trend of load management).

The Utah Jazz are one of the worst teams in the NBA and their goal for the rest of the season may be setting themselves up with a Draft lottery pick.

The Utah Jazz were fined $100,000 by the NBA on Wednesday for violating the league's Player Participation Policy. The league said the violation involved Lauri Markkanen, who is a star player under terms of the policy.