The Utah Jazz rolled out an interesting rotation decision in the midst of their latest loss to the New Orleans Pelicans.

As starting center Jaxson Hayes found himself in foul trouble early in the night––logging six fouls in 21 minutes––combined with the implications of being without Jaren Jackson Jr. or Jusuf Nurkic, the Jazz were forced to try an unorthodox look in their frontcourt down the stretch in this game.

That led to the Jazz playing Lauri Markkanen at center.

It's not a position that Markkanen has played very often in his career. Over his past four years in Utah, Markkanen has run the center position in just 23% of the minutes he's played, according to Basketball Reference. In the past two years, that number has dropped to just 14%.

But the Jazz decided to roll with Markkanen as their primary big man for multiple minutes against the Pelicans. And when asking Will Hardy, it doesn't seem like rolling out Markkanen at the five will be an every-night thing.

What Will Hardy Said About Playing Lauri Markkanen at Center

Hardy noted post-game that he felt Markkanen did a good job in his minutes at the five, especially when factoring in that the Jazz All-Star is playing through "a lot of pain right now," per Utah's head coach.

"Yeah, I thought Lauri, you know, he's digging in. I think he's playing through a lot of pain right now. I think he's really battling for his teammates and for us," Hardy said postgame.

"He doesn't play a ton of five in general. But, with some of the injuries and then some foul trouble, sometimes you have to change things up. I think he's doing a pretty good job."

Markkanen finished the game with a respectable stat line, playing 39 minutes for 22 points, 10 rebounds, four assists, along with one steal and two blocks.

Markkanen also showed out as an outside shooter in a game where the Jazz as a whole fell into another shooting slump as they have many times early this season, shooting over 40% with his five makes from three.

Offensively, playing Markkanen at the center spot does allow for a bit more versatility by giving the Jazz better spacing and scoring to lean on, which can help for a Utah team that currently sits in the bottom 10 of the NBA in terms of offensive rating.

However, on the defensive side, the result is a different story. Markkanen's not as skilled of a defender as other bigs he'd be matched up against, and he isn't as strong a rebounder as most other bigs around the league, creating a pretty substantial mismatch against many lineups the Jazz will face.

Those defensive limitations also seem to be why Will Hardy doesn't envision a ton of Markkanen center minutes on a nightly basis. Instead, those minutes will be matchup-based.

"There are some things that he can improve, like everybody can, but these are also defensive situations he hasn't been in a ton," Hardy continued postgame.

"We'll keep looking at it. I don't know how much Lauri will play five moving forward. I think there will be some opportunities for it, and some nights it won't make as much sense. It'll be a night-to-night thing.

The Jazz have made no shortage of interesting rotation decisions through their first eight games on the schedule. And that trend will likely only continue until Utah is able to find a consistent plan of attack that can put wins on the board.