This is all my fault. After lurking here for a year I finally decided to make an account and Lauri gets traded almost immediately. What a time to make the first post, eh?
After frustrating Chicago years, it was a joy watching Lauri play in a group that (a) was young and interesting, (b) competed every night, and (c) in which Lauri seemed to felt comfortable playing despite having to adapt to a new situation. Now I feel sorry for Lauri because he is eyeing another string of non-competitive seasons in a rebuilding team. That team is not gonna be easy to watch so I guess I keep watching the Cavs as well. Hopefully Lauri gets traded again before the season starts but I do not actually believe it. Even if Utah is tanking, they still need to fill the team with players they can somehow sell to the home crowd. Lauri is fresh enough for "we have a team that is young and hungry" narrative. In any case, getting bounced around cannot be good for a player's psyche, notwithstanding all the talk that it is business after all.
I had the opportunity to see Lauri play in Finland this summer and the reports are true: Lauri is quicker and slimmer but I do not think he has lost core strength, perhaps the opposite (this shows, for example, in how he now jumps quicker the second time after rebounding the ball/making a shot attempt near the basket). I think his fit with the Cavs would have been a lot better this season, and that would have been great news for the Cavs. Time will tell how Mitchell fits but there is no denying that the team has an awful lot of talent. I think we can expect players to figure it out.