Cavs made a huge mistake and traded the wrong big man

[SkyBill40]

... snip...

Will Hardy develop him to better version of Dirk. That is sure.

Uh...

[GreatWhiteStiff]

He's definitely a better Pete Chilcutt.

Pete Chilcutt played 584 games in the nba, and shot over 38% from three, Jazzy! Let the dead sleep!

He teaches sixth grade math, you monster!

He'd be perfect for today's game.

[jazzfan1971]

I knew I was going to trigger some Chilcutt fans. I'm such a troll

[Sunlight]

Career high 38pts and looked like white Finn Greek.

[TheLand13]

38 points by Lauri on unreal efficiency, but can't ignore Mobley having 21/17 on 64% from the field, or Allen having 20/12 with 4 blocks.

Then again, the Cavs game went to double overtime, so...

[mg]

38 points by Lauri on unreal efficiency, but can't ignore Mobley having 21/17 on 64% from the field, or Allen having 20/12 with 4 blocks.

Then again, the Cavs game went to double overtime, so...

Lauri would've been wasted on that Cav team as the 4th option in Bickerstaff's offense. He would not have had the freedom to do what he's doing now in Utah.

[Axolotl]

So far this looks like one of those rare deals where both sides win. Mitchell's been awesome for the Cavs, and Markkanen for the Jazz.

Double spin for the winner:

Read on Twitter

[Heej]

Career high 38pts and looked like white Finn Greek.

Honestly looked like a better version of Dirk out there to me

[Airmiess]

Jazz version of Lauri reminds me of Christian Laettner

[Scalabrine]

38 points by Lauri on unreal efficiency, but can't ignore Mobley having 21/17 on 64% from the field, or Allen having 20/12 with 4 blocks.

Then again, the Cavs game went to double overtime, so...

Lauri would've been wasted on that Cav team as the 4th option in Bickerstaff's offense. He would not have had the freedom to do what he's doing now in Utah.

More likely the 5th option. He would have gotten more iso sets than Allen for sure, but Allen as a roll threat probably would have been a higher run play than anything involving Markkanen.

[sip]

Yeah, he played as well as he had over his career in general. Wasn’t bad, had some streaks, but just not consistent or a centerpiece on a real contender. Glad he’s playing well. This isn’t some trade I want to see the other side fail. Those picks are going to be high and Ainge may package them for a better pick eventually, and Mitchell has been borderline MVP contender, so I’m glad Lauri is playing well. Those familiar with him just understand it likely won’t last. He’ll stay decent, but he’ll have a ten game stretch where he shoots 20% from 3 also.

I guess you missed the fact that he is doing this without shooting well from 3. The guy is in the best shape of his career and taken his game to completely different level. Once he gets hot from 3 he is going to put up some huge numbers for that stretch.

Sent from my SM-G988U using RealGM mobile app

I’ll bump this thread in three months and he’ll be averaging 16 and 8 on average efficiency, and there is nothing wrong with that, but Lauri is a limited player. Everyone gets excited about him when he first arrives, then reality sets in.

He sure does look limited. Jazz fans are definitely getting tired of him looking like a superstar on crazy efficiency.

[Scalabrine]

I guess you missed the fact that he is doing this without shooting well from 3. The guy is in the best shape of his career and taken his game to completely different level. Once he gets hot from 3 he is going to put up some huge numbers for that stretch.

Sent from my SM-G988U using RealGM mobile app

I’ll bump this thread in three months and he’ll be averaging 16 and 8 on average efficiency, and there is nothing wrong with that, but Lauri is a limited player. Everyone gets excited about him when he first arrives, then reality sets in.

He sure does look limited. Jazz fans are definitely getting tired of him looking like a superstar on crazy efficiency.

He's also been the 2nd best isolation scorer in the NBA this season.

Read on Twitter

At this point, he's gotta be an All-Star. He's been incredible and the Jazz are still winning games and are sitting at .500 half way through the season.

West:
Jokic/Sabonis
Zion/Markkanen
LeBron/George
Doncic/SGA
Morant/

The last 3 spots are still pretty open for me. I think they'd obviously go to AD, Curry, Booker or Lillard if it weren't for games played. I know that hasn't always mattered for All-Star but it does for me. All-NBA awards require 71% of games played, and I feel like that should also apply for All-Star. At this point; Curry has played in 70% of his games, Booker has played in 78%, Davis has played in 69% all of those percentages will continue to go down as all are out for another few weeks at least. Lillard has played in 66% and that number is going up. Lauri and SGA are probably 8 and 9 on that list at this point. I also think Edwards, Fox, and McCollum are all next on the list for me.

Edit: For those wondering, In the East I have it;
Embiid*/Bam
Durant*/Giannis*
Tatum*/Siakam
Mitchell*/Brown*
Halliburton/Young

I think it's a lot more congested here. Randle, Brunson, D. Murray, Holiday, Garland, Derozan and Porzingis all have very legit arguments for those last 2 spots. Kyrie, Harden and Butler have all not played enough games but certainly have the stats and name appeal to make it if they can stay healthy. Then I'd love Brook Lopez, OG Anunoby, Jarret Allen, Evan Mobley, and Myles Turner all get some recognition for their elite two way play too. I think in the East you're talking about 25 guys at this point for 12 spots. 6 of which are about as **locked** up as it gets. So you're at 19 guys that have a legit argument for the last 6 more spots without even mentioning Lavine, Herro, Beal... pretty crazy!

[Michael Jackson]

Lauri better make the allstar game this year.

[ArtMorte]

Talking about the Cavs' big men: Mobley's hype has taken a little hit this season. He hasn't added anything to his game since his rookie year. Still a great prospect, but with the Mitchell trade the Cavs are in a win-now moment.

It's also an issue for the Cavs that neither of their starting bigs make threes: Allen doesn't shoot them at all and while Mobley attempts the very occasional three, he's hitting them at abysmal 22%. It's tough to be a good team in today's NBA if both your PF and C are not a threat from beyond the arc.

Right now it's looking pretty obvious that the Cavs would have been better off in the present by trading Mobley and keeping Markkanen - if that was an option. Mobley needs to develop his game by next season at the latest or it's starting to make more sense for the Cavs to trade him or Allen.

[mrmsix6]

Right now it's looking pretty obvious that the Cavs would have been better off in the present by trading Mobley and keeping Markkanen

Absolutely not. Markkanen would not be the same guy on the Cavs. The opportunity just isn't there for him offensively, as we've already seen. Markk was a mediocre 3rd-4th option for 5 years in the league. Now, as the first option on a mediocre team, he's blossomed into a borderline all-star. Good for him, but we've seen what he looks like without all these shots.

The Cavs are doing just fine as a super young team with a ton of upside, currently in the top half of the east despite having zero NBA caliber wing players on the roster. Hopefully they can address this major deficiency and jump into the contending group. They are as good as they are right now (2nd Net rtg in the league, #1 defense) in large part due to Mobley's defense. Him and Allen are carrying the team defensively.

[FranchisePlayer]

Markannen is very skilled for his size. Decent ballhandler and passer, and actually has some playmaking ability.

Seems like it took 5 years for the Americans realize that Lauri is able to do also other things than stand behind the line and shoot 3 pointers like Cavs and Bulls used him.

Will Hardy develop him to better version of Dirk. That is sure.

A good thread, a good title.

And you are right although I think originally it was the Bulls that made the even worse mistake.

[FranchisePlayer]

I was a Lauri fan in Chic, but supported the trade. He would have been a PERFECT long term 3rd big with the Cavs, but the Mitchell trade was a great gamble
Utah might pump-and-dump him, so they will use him a lot now. He's a good player, but not an All Star or anything

Still think so? We'll see...

[FranchisePlayer]

Will Hardy develop him to better version of Dirk. That is sure.

Read on Twitter

So you're saying that Markkanen, a career 15.4 PPG / 6.8 RPG player who's 25 years old and already had his fair share of injuries, will become a better version of Nowitzki? The same Nowitzki, who's arguably a Top 20 ATG, who had 25/10 playing 80 games per season when he was the same age?

Lauri won't play 80 games this season but the other numbers are definitely within reach.

[meekrab]

Jazz might not even make the play in, let's dial down the Dirk rhetoric

[FranchisePlayer]

Good player but he aint Dirk's level and never will be. At Markkanen's age Dirk was the top 10 player in the league.

At Markkanen's age the table was set up for Dirk in Dallas for a long time. This is Lauri's first of that sort and his numbers are trending upwards. "Never will be" is obviously over the top but we'll see.