Utah
Jazz’s Lauri Markkanen Shares One Massive Offseason Goal
While a lot of the discussion on the Utah Jazz’s development and progression centers around their young talent and recent draftees, that doesn’t mean the veteran pieces on this roster won’t be eyeing their own set of improvements to make across the off-months of this summer.
Lauri Markkanen is no exception, who comes off his third year with the Jazz during his age-27 season, and has proven in past offseason periods of his career that a strong leap for his game in the summer is wildly possible, as shown during his 2023 Most Improved Player campaign after bursting onto the scene after his stint with the Finland national team.
Looking ahead to the coming offseason, Markkanen will be looking to make another jump in his game. This time, that progression will focus on his shot-creating ability, end-game shot-making, and in his own words, he’ll still look to “work on everything.”
“Just keep getting better at the end-of-game and isolation stuff,” Markkanen said. “I know it’s going to come down to that. It’s the same answer every year: work on everything. Tighten the handle up a little better, and again, getting [further] out of my comfort zone with shots. I feel like I shot a lot of tougher shots than I’ve done in the past. The window’s kind of smaller, everybody knows you can shoot. Doing that off the dribble and stuff like that, those are the big things I’ll be working on.”
Markkanen finished his last season with Utah putting some of his lower numbers since coming to the Jazz during the 2022 summer. In 47 games, he put up 19.0 points, 5.9 rebounds, and 1.5 assists on 42.3% shooting from the field a night. Still, nice numbers to emerge as the team’s leading scorer in the stat sheet, but not quite on par with his averages from the past two seasons.
For this offseason, it’ll be a big one for Markkanen to get healthy from his injury-riddled year and get back to the dominant form Jazz fans know their star forward for. Perhaps another stint with the Finnish national team during FIBA play this summer can spark that play in the right direction, and with it, reinforce himself as a centerpiece for Utah’s long-spanning rebuild.
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Utah
Here’s who will lead Utah Valley University as its next president
Jon Anderson will be charged with moving the Orem school forward following the death of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk on campus last year.
(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) Incoming UVU President Jon Anderson poses for a photo with his family after an event announcing his selection at Utah Valley University in Orem on Friday, July 17, 2026.
Utah
Beaver County residents set up thousands of sandbags ahead of flashfloods
BEAVER COUNTY, Utah — A massive community effort is underway as volunteers and Beaver County crews distribute thousands of sandbags to protect homes from the potential path of floodwaters.
After the Cottonwood Fires, residents have been waiting for weeks for relief to come in the form of rain, though officials now warn it may come all at once with an increased risk of flooding and debris flow.
Emergency Service Director Les Whitney believes that the fire has left plenty of debris to bring trouble for residents.
“We got a lot of water. We’re bringing debris with it, so tree branches, tree limbs, logs, lots of different size firewood, and that’s all in the creeks. We’re worried about that plugging up our bridges and stuff, so we have heavy equipment and excavators located in strategic places so that we can keep those bridges open,” said Whitney.
An estimated 140 homes and condominiums were spared from the flames, but remain in the paths of floodwaters.
Residents can also pick up sandbags at the Beaver County Sheriff’s Office or at the Beaver County Rodeo Fairgrounds.
Utah
Utah man arrested again for allegedly abusing dog twice in three months
EAGLE MOUNTAIN — An Eagle Mountain man currently on pretrial release in 4th District Court who is accused of abusing his dog has been arrested again for allegedly punching the same animal.
Keith Reaves Davis, 43, was booked into the Utah County Jail on Wednesday for investigation of aggravated cruelty to an animal.
Utah County sheriff’s deputies were called Wednesday afternoon to a grocery store on a report that a man was beating his dog after it had gotten off its leash and was stopped by a bystander, according to a police booking affidavit.
“I reviewed security camera footage from the grocery store, and an individual matching the description of the suspect was seen holding the dog in the air by one paw and repeatedly striking the dog on the right hind leg area. I observed the male strike the dog several times before dropping the dog from approximately 1-2 feet. The strikes appeared to be as hard as the male could hit,” the arresting deputy wrote in the affidavit. “The dog did not cry out or whimper as if the dog was accustomed to the abuse.”
When questioned, Davis “admitted to striking the dog because it was not behaving,” the affidavit states.
An animal control officer who responded to the scene to take custody of the dog noted it was the same dog he had taken from Davis exactly three months earlier during another animal abuse investigation.
In that case, Davis was charged in 4th District Court with aggravated cruelty to an animal, a class A misdemeanor; and public intoxication, a class C misdemeanor, after deputies received a tip from a neighbor that a dog was being abused at Davis’ home, according to charging documents. When questioned, Davis “acknowledged hitting his dog as punishment,” the charges state.
Deputies also reviewed videos that the neighbor had filmed. The neighbor told investigators “there was blood from the dog on the ground of the garage and (the neighbor) can hear the dog screaming as if it’s being hurt. Deputies got the videos from the (neighbor) and you can hear very loudly the dog screaming and crying with a lot of loud banging noises. In one of the videos, you can hear the dog sounding like it is being choked by a collar and is grasping for air,” a police booking affidavit states.
Davis’ next court hearing in the April case is scheduled for July 28.
In their latest booking report, sheriff’s deputies note that they “believe further harm will be inflicted on this dog if it is released back to the male a second time,” and have recommended the dog not be returned to Davis.
The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.
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