Lauri Markkanen - Utahin Marsalkka: All-NBA Snub

JMoneyYourHoney said:

If he's still our starting SF next season then we seriously screwed up in the draft.

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No way. There is not going to be an NBA ready starting 3 at 14. Maybe you could get away with Eason, but the lack of spacing in the starting unit would not allow it.

JMoneyYourHoney said:

If he's still our starting SF next season then we seriously screwed up in the draft.

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Lauri as our starting SF was awfully successful when our starters were all healthy and out there. If Allen was healthy, we could've put Mobley on Durant and we probably win that Nets game. Now if he's being hunted by Trae or Curry, maybe you have to make an in-game adjustment as they basically have unlimited range. But the Cavs lost against the Hawks because they couldn't score in the 4th quarter.

I don't care about who starts, whoever the lineup data says is best. I do want versatility to go small when the bigs are being outrun in transition.

Markannens shooting and spacing is important for this team. We will absolutely be playing plenty of minutes with him at the 3 next time Mobley and Allen.

I just know that in the most important game of the year to make the playoffs, Markannen was shooting the hell out of the ball. He had 26 pts 8 reb 2 stow 1 block. He was +8. Garland and Mobley were +2 and +3 respectively. LeVert was even. One handed Allen was -3.

Rondo was -18. Okoro -14. Love -8

Mark is not even 25 years old. He’s a big piece of this core. I think we’re going to see an absolutely excellent season out of him as probably our starting 3 this year.

Even if we draft a guy like Daniels, Eason or Dieng, to just throw them into the starting lineup that desperately needs a spacer like Markannen.

The rookie wing we hopefully get should absolutely play big minutes. But to just slot them at the starting 3 could really hurt our chances to win right away.

A rookie like Mobley who comes in and instantly contributes to winning at the level he did is just…a rare and extremely valuable thing.

Most of the time it’s a Jalen Green or Cade situation where even if these guys had decent rookie years they basically didn’t do shit to add any wins to their teams record throughout the year.

Even a rookie as well polished and good as Kyrie didn’t really have an effect on winning(then again Kyries never really had lan effect on winning besides the 2016 finals lol..just looking at on-off and advanced stats )

The best way to develop Eason, Daniels, Dieng, Sochan or whoever we end up drafting will be to bring them off the bench, but also to give them time throughout the game with various Garland/Mobley lineups. But most importantly to give them the time and space and opportunity to work on their game without it also being a prsssure cooker type of situation.

We were good with Lauri starting alongside our towers. He’s a good fit. If it isn’t broke, no need to fix it. We need to go into the season with LeVert at the 2, Lauri at the 3. And we need to get hopefully a good 20-30 straight healthy games after hopefully a healthy training camp to truly evaluate that lineup and LeVert specifically.

InBoobieWeTrust said:

The best way to develop Eason, Daniels, Dieng, Sochan or whoever we end up drafting will be to bring them off the bench, but also to give them time throughout the game with various Garland/Mobley lineups. But most importantly to give them the time and space and opportunity to work on their game without it also being a prsssure cooker type of situation.

We were good with Lauri starting alongside our towers. He’s a good fit. If it isn’t broke, no need to fix it. We need to go into the season with LeVert at the 2, Lauri at the 3. And we need to get hopefully a good 20-30 straight healthy games after hopefully a healthy training camp to truly evaluate that lineup and LeVert specifically.

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I agree wholeheartedly.

Here is Kawhi's first game. In his rookie year, Pop eventually started him half of the games but he brought him along slowly to let him get his footing and find ways to impact games positively before putting that pressure on him. He had RJ kick his ass in practice for a few months and probably put his locker right next to his as well.



Same for Tayshaun Prince under Rick Carlisle in Detroit. Michael Curry, Corliss Williamson, Jon Barry and Hubert Davis on his last legs set him up for longterm success.



They were the perfect professional veteran swingmen to help set the example for how to positively impact and compliment the young stars these swing men grew next to. Eason, Daniels, Sochan, Dieng whoever would really benefit not just from watching Lauri but also from that critical mentor acquisition like a Nic Batum, Joe Ingles, Taurean Prince, Derrick Jones Jr, Jeff Green, Kent Bazemore, Otto Porter Jr kind of FA acquisition who could mentor and bridge the gap for them and be ok with keeping their seat warm while doing so.

The days of drafting a guy and throwing him out there to let him learn in the deep end should officially be over if we want them developed the right way moving forward.

Good call

So this was pretty cool flashback. Its kinda funny how much slower Lauri turned because Bulls wanted him to bulk up.

Lauri has alot more bounce in his dunks here than I have seen in NBA and even his handle looks better.

This guy has all the tools to be an all star. Needs assertiveness, confidence and we need to go to him more often.

Am I the only one who liked Lauri at SF? I really liked the big lineup with Lauri/Mobley/JA. I thought it worked defensively when everyone was healthy and I like the space he does create.

red. said:

Am I the only one who liked Lauri at SF? I really liked the big lineup with Lauri/Mobley/JA. I thought it worked defensively when everyone was healthy and I like the space he does create.

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It's a bit matchup dependent for him defensively, but the Cavs are in no position to lose his shooting from the starting

I think we may get to the point where Mobley and Lauri can swap positions defensively in the playoffs and that could produce serious dividends.

DingleDong said:

So this was pretty cool flashback. Its kinda funny how much slower Lauri turned because Bulls wanted him to bulk up.

Lauri has alot more bounce in his dunks here than I have seen in NBA and even his handle looks better.

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everybody better against that level of competition.

red. said:

Am I the only one who liked Lauri at SF? I really liked the big lineup with Lauri/Mobley/JA. I thought it worked defensively when everyone was healthy and I like the space he does create.

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He can't stay in front of good 3's or when he gets switched onto a guard. It worked with Allen and Mobley behind him and I think it can still work with those guys at the 4 & 5 during the regular season. I suspect he would get abused in a playoff series (who could he guard against Miami, Boston, Milwaukee, or a full strength Brooklyn?), but we have to get there first before we worry about that. The playoffs this year have once again demonstrated that mobile size is invaluable.

Dr No said:

He can't stay in front of good 3's or when he gets switched onto a guard. It worked with Allen and Mobley behind him and I think it can still work with those guys at the 4 & 5 during the regular season. I suspect he would get abused in a playoff series (who could he guard against Miami, Boston, Milwaukee, or a full strength Brooklyn?), but we have to get there first before we worry about that. The playoffs this year have once again demonstrated that mobile size is invaluable.

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I think the Cavs should experiment with Mobley defending the 3 in those situations and playing Lauri at the 4. Mobley defends really well in space, and as he matures and grows more comfortable, he can be more of a Swiss army knife defensively.

red. said:

Am I the only one who liked Lauri at SF? I really liked the big lineup with Lauri/Mobley/JA. I thought it worked defensively when everyone was healthy and I like the space he does create.

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I did.

It is a huge shame we did not see the optimal lineup of Garland/LaVert/Lauri/Evan/Allen.

I think it would do very well most of the time.

I think the Cavs very much want to see if this works as well before making a decision on LaVert.

Sebastian said:

I did.

It is a huge shame we did not see the optimal lineup of Garland/LaVert/Lauri/Evan/Allen.

I think it would do very well most of the time.

I think the Cavs very much want to see if this works as well before making a decision on LaVert.

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Good. I’m glad I’m not the only one.

That’s one of my favorite things JBB has done was going big. It made sense to me to go big after getting Lauri and drafting Mobley. I thought JBB would run Mobley at the 3 though. Either way, I like the big lineup. The Cavs healthy were blowing teams out!

I would like to see DG, Caris, Lauri, Mobley and JA lineup as well. Hopefully JBB use preseason this year to play with lineups etc.

red. said:

Am I the only one who liked Lauri at SF? I really liked the big lineup with Lauri/Mobley/JA. I thought it worked defensively when everyone was healthy and I like the space he does create.

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I thought it created mismatches when we went with 3 bigs, more often in our favor than not.