- Joined
- May 8, 2002
- Posts
- 1,265,099
- Reaction score
- 59
Unfortunately, Lauri Markkanen hasn't played for many competitive basketball teams during his nine-year professional career. And though it may be difficult to admit, half of that stretch is the fault of the Utah Jazz, a team that traded for Markkanen in an attempt to get worse, not better.
He was something of a toss-in in the trade that sent Mitchell to Cleveland in exchange for Collin Sexton and a slew of first-round picks. Sexton was the main draw, truthfully, as a player who hadn't quite reached his potential while sharing a backcourt with Darius Garland with the Cavs.
Markkanen wasn't a footnote, of course, he was a five-year NBA veteran who averaged nearly 15 points per game in a catch-and-shoot role. He was a good player -- a starting-caliber forward.
But the 7-foot stretch forward has gone from role player to perhaps the premier off-ball scorer in all of basketball since entering the Beehive State.
In his first year with the Jazz, Markkanen went ballistic, posting career-high averages in points, rebounds, assists, and field goal percentage. In a primary scoring role, Markkanen has been exceptional in Utah, despite some tanking-laced seasons dinging his counting stats in the years since.
...Except for last year, where he notched a career-high of 26.7 points per game through 42 appearances. Lauri came to ball in the final year of the Jazz's rebuild, and was so effective that his late-season injury raised the eyebrows of the NBA, who threatened to sent a private medical staff to evaluate his health.
Needless to say, Lauri is a critical piece to the Jazz's potential success this season.
But with little to no experience on a competitive roster, the burning question at the forefront of my mind is one I'm not sure I'm prepared to answer: Is Lauri Markkanen a "good stats, bad team" type of player, or will his stardom lift Utah to its first playoff berth since the dismantling of the old guard?
Through four seasons in Chicago, Markkanen never suited up for a team with a winning record -- that's been the Bulls for the last decade or so, truthfully, but I digress.
Through four seasons in Utah, Markkanen has yet to see the win column finish higher than the loss column. That's eight seasons of poor team performance with Markkanen on the floor.
The only winning team he's ever been a part of was Cleveland, and they traded him away.
But here's my counter to this point: while the Jazz were actively sabotaging their own record, they were compelled to keep Markkanen off the court as much as humanly possible. Why? Because when Markkanen played, the Jazz's floor was elevated. He's a team player, a no-waste star, and one of the best three-point shooting 7-footers in the history of basketball.
No, we haven't seen what Lauri can do with a competitive Jazz squad -- but we've seen how he can compete with a non-competitive squad as well, and that's incredibly promising.
Continue reading...
He was something of a toss-in in the trade that sent Mitchell to Cleveland in exchange for Collin Sexton and a slew of first-round picks. Sexton was the main draw, truthfully, as a player who hadn't quite reached his potential while sharing a backcourt with Darius Garland with the Cavs.
Markkanen wasn't a footnote, of course, he was a five-year NBA veteran who averaged nearly 15 points per game in a catch-and-shoot role. He was a good player -- a starting-caliber forward.
But the 7-foot stretch forward has gone from role player to perhaps the premier off-ball scorer in all of basketball since entering the Beehive State.
In his first year with the Jazz, Markkanen went ballistic, posting career-high averages in points, rebounds, assists, and field goal percentage. In a primary scoring role, Markkanen has been exceptional in Utah, despite some tanking-laced seasons dinging his counting stats in the years since.
...Except for last year, where he notched a career-high of 26.7 points per game through 42 appearances. Lauri came to ball in the final year of the Jazz's rebuild, and was so effective that his late-season injury raised the eyebrows of the NBA, who threatened to sent a private medical staff to evaluate his health.
Needless to say, Lauri is a critical piece to the Jazz's potential success this season.
But with little to no experience on a competitive roster, the burning question at the forefront of my mind is one I'm not sure I'm prepared to answer: Is Lauri Markkanen a "good stats, bad team" type of player, or will his stardom lift Utah to its first playoff berth since the dismantling of the old guard?
Through four seasons in Chicago, Markkanen never suited up for a team with a winning record -- that's been the Bulls for the last decade or so, truthfully, but I digress.
Through four seasons in Utah, Markkanen has yet to see the win column finish higher than the loss column. That's eight seasons of poor team performance with Markkanen on the floor.
The only winning team he's ever been a part of was Cleveland, and they traded him away.
But here's my counter to this point: while the Jazz were actively sabotaging their own record, they were compelled to keep Markkanen off the court as much as humanly possible. Why? Because when Markkanen played, the Jazz's floor was elevated. He's a team player, a no-waste star, and one of the best three-point shooting 7-footers in the history of basketball.
No, we haven't seen what Lauri can do with a competitive Jazz squad -- but we've seen how he can compete with a non-competitive squad as well, and that's incredibly promising.
Continue reading...
