Will Hardy’s real Lauri Markkanen reason for benching amid allegations

The NBA and commissioner Adam Silver have sent a clear message to teams over the years regarding the notion of tanking. This time, the league’s stark message on Thursday night came in form big fines for the Indiana Pacers and the Utah Jazz.

While the Pacers were fined $100,000 as a result of violating the Player Participation Rule by resting players who could participate and reducing minutes to try and intentionally lose, the Jazz were fined $500,000 for the removal Lauri Markkanen and Jaren Jackson Jr. from games against the Orlando Magic and Miami Heat on February 7 and 9, respectively, and benched them throughout the fourth quarter.

The NBA announced the following. pic.twitter.com/0JFKpOnOmF

— NBA Communications (@NBAPR) February 13, 2026

These two cases by the Pacers and the Jazz were considered “behavior detrimental to the league” that Silver and the league office will not tolerate. However, Jazz was adamant about not doing anything wrong, and the head coach Will Hardy explained why there is limited minutes of Markkanen in recent games.

“I sat Laurie because he was on a minutes restriction,” Hardy said in his postgame comments following Thursday night’s 135-119 loss to the Portland Trail Blazers. “If our medical team restricts Laura for a few minutes, I will try to keep Laura healthy.”

Both Markkanen and Jackson Jr. were benched after the third quarter in previous games against Orlando and Miami, prompting the NBA to investigate and ultimately fine the organization $500,000 for what fans described as a “foul throw” on social media.

While the Jazz are not in position to contend for the playoffs and have likely had internal discussions about resting Markkanen and others to try to gain an edge for draft position, Hardy brought up an interesting point about how Utah’s medical team advised him to keep Markkanen on a strict minutes limit to prevent injuries.

The Jazz star has missed 15 games this season with various injuries and was recently on the injury report due to an injury-related layoff. He hasn’t eclipsed 27 minutes in any game since early February.

As for Jackson, his injury concerns take things a step further.

After being traded by the Memphis Grizzlies to the Jazz before the Feb. 5 trade deadline, Jackson played in three games for Utah. In Jackson’s case, he never eclipsed 25 minutes in any of those games, and the team recently announced that an MRI revealed localized pigmented villonodular synovitis (PVNS) in his left knee that will undergo removal surgery.

A PVNS growth in the knee is a noncancerous tumor-like tumor that causes swelling and pain in the joints. Jazz supposedly knew about this knee problem after making a trade with Memphis and intending to shut down Jackson by the end of the year, according to Tony Jones of the Athletics. Jackson, however, wanted to play in Salt Lake City at least once before the surgery, which kept him limited in the first three games with the Jazz.

Regardless of whether one believes that jazz has really failed stillness their star players are open to interpretation. As a jazz owner pointed out Ryan Smith on social networksThe Jazz won on the road against Miami after benching Markkanen and Jackson, so it’s not like they lost the game on purpose.

The NBA will continue to evaluate all 30 teams when it comes to star players being suspended, and will continue to penalize teams suspected of gambling to try to increase their lottery odds.