Markkanen 43/9/3 vs Croatia

[JN61]

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Deserves a thread of its own. Great performance. And one gotta say that NY media looks silly right now, once again.

Jazz got a great building blocks for future with Markkanen and future picks. Will be interesting next year when Markkanen is in a bigger offensive role once again, can he deliver near all-star level of numbers on (most likely) not a playoff team. Also question remains can he stay healthy full/near full 82 games.

[Mephariel]

Not saying Markkanen can't be what you said, but I don't see how the NY media looks silly because of one game vs Croatia.

[homecourtloss]

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Deserves a thread of its own. Great performance. And one gotta say that NY media looks silly right now, once again.

Jazz got a great building blocks for future with Markkanen and future picks. Will be interesting next year when Markkanen is in a bigger offensive role once again, can he deliver near all-star level of numbers on (most likely) not a playoff team. Also question remains can he stay healthy full/near full 82 games.

Markkanen isn’t a “building block” in any meaningful way for any team.

And not sure how this game makes the “NY media look silly.”

[SUPERVILLAIN]

Yikes. RealGM hyperbole at it's finest.

[JN61]

Deserves a thread of its own. Great performance. And one gotta say that NY media looks silly right now, once again.

Jazz got a great building blocks for future with Markkanen and future picks. Will be interesting next year when Markkanen is in a bigger offensive role once again, can he deliver near all-star level of numbers on (most likely) not a playoff team. Also question remains can he stay healthy full/near full 82 games.

Markkanen isn’t a “building block” in any meaningful way for any team.

And not sure how this game makes the “NY media look silly.”

Why not? He is an elite shooting big (a year ago 62% TS and last season 58.2%) who has been kinda in a bad position in last few seasons where teams haven't really utilized him properly. He has had great tournament so far putting up 28 ppg (3rd highest in the tournament, for the team that is ultra team focused and not a single player focused as far as I understand it). I'm not saying he is going to be your first option, that's why I said he is a great building block to start with for total rebuild that Jazz is going to make. Draft superstar potential player and Markkanen has potential to be 2nd star for your team, especially if you are small market team like Utah. He is type of player which every NBA team seeks, stretch big.

[RiRuHoops]

Lauri won't have the luxury of abusing Saric and Bogdan for 82 games

[Tor_Raps]

The Jazz got a nice haul for Mitchell. Markkenen and Sexton can both put up solid years for the Jazz and that's not even talking about the potential of those draft picks so far down the line.

[The High Cyde]

GOAT

[djsunyc]

Watch on YouTube

[Nuntius]

Not saying Markkanen can't be what you said, but I don't see how the NY media looks silly because of one game vs Croatia.

It's not just this one game. Lauri has been amazing throughout this tournament. He is averaging 27.8 PPG on 53.4% shooting (40.5% from 3), 7.7 RPG, 2.3 APG and 1.5 SPG. He has been one of the best players in the tournament. Only Luka, Giannis and Jokic have played better than him.

[Mephariel]

Not saying Markkanen can't be what you said, but I don't see how the NY media looks silly because of one game vs Croatia.

It's not just this one game. Lauri has been amazing throughout this tournament. He is averaging 27.8 PPG on 53.4% shooting (40.5% from 3), 7.7 RPG, 2.3 APG and 1.5 SPG. He has been one of the best players in the tournament. Only Luka, Giannis and Jokic have played better than him.

Sure. But there are far more data showing he is not going to be averaging those numbers in the NBA. He isn't an incoming rookie.

[BobbyPortisEyes]

Amazing performance, amazing play from him throughout the tournament and certainly thread worthy.

But it's not something that makes NY media look "silly" or is indicative in any way of him being a "building block" for the Jazz. It's very different being a good shot creator and maker on a team with zero NBA caliber players (Finland's second best player is Sasu Salin who by NBA standards is not good at anything) versus being one on an NBA team. I think the best case scenario for both the Jazz and Lauri is that he's given a lot of freedom this season, he balls out and is then traded for a 1st round pick next offseason to a team that's genuinely trying to compete.

[Hugi Mancura]

Utah probably wants him to continue play like this. Increases his trade value.

But he isn't the only NBA player who is limited to use only parts of his skill set in NBA. There is one ball and teams need the ball in the hands of the players who they think will be teams future or who are the team now. So these stars do what ever they want while rest of the team have to live with left overs. So there are two kind of 'role' players. Those who are playing like stars when they get a chance and those who are playing like roleplayers no matter where they play. And then there are NBA allstar's who turn into roleplayers in these games, but that's another story.

Lauri himself has seen the good and the bad of this we need to develop these player. He was a starter in his rookie year over Mirotic even though Mirotic was better player at that point, but at the same time in his first years he was watching while Bulls tried to make Chriss Dunn a star he never had the skill set.

[Lalouie]

markkanen was my target in his draft class and i have been greatly disappointed to date

[Lalouie]

Watch on YouTube

Deserves a thread of its own. Great performance. And one gotta say that NY media looks silly right now, once again.

Jazz got a great building blocks for future with Markkanen and future picks. Will be interesting next year when Markkanen is in a bigger offensive role once again, can he deliver near all-star level of numbers on (most likely) not a playoff team. Also question remains can he stay healthy full/near full 82 games.

player like lm needs a good team that can channel his game, not a bad team that expects/needs more

[Johnny Bball]

Lol at great building block using one FIBA game/tourney, ignoring the last 5 years.

[UcanUwill]

Amazing performance, amazing play from him throughout the tournament and certainly thread worthy.

But it's not something that makes NY media look "silly" or is indicative in any way of him being a "building block" for the Jazz. It's very different being a good shot creator and maker on a team with zero NBA caliber players (Finland's second best player is Sasu Salin who by NBA standards is not good at anything) versus being one on an NBA team. I think the best case scenario for both the Jazz and Lauri is that he's given a lot of freedom this season, he balls out and is then traded for a 1st round pick next offseason to a team that's genuinely trying to compete.

You are correct, but on the other hand, it is impressive to score so much so efficiently when you are such a focal point, to a point entire opponent plan is to just stop you. I would say, he might have been best scorer in entire Eurobasket.
I undertand the skepticism, the evidence of who he is at this point in the NBA is heavy, but its not like he sucks, 15.4 ppg. on 57 TS% over his career, still just 25 years old. I think the guy will probably gonna have 20 ppg. season, it will be interesting to see what Fonteccio averages, he is probably good for 10 ppg. I think both of these guys looked WAY better than Bojan Bogdanovic, who himself has had near 20 ppg seasons on that Utah pretender/contender team.

[Swuul]

it is impressive to score so much so efficiently when you are such a focal point, to a point entire opponent plan is to just stop you.

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Finland has four players on the field (and one with the throw-in), Team Croatia swarms Markkanen, and he still gets it in. It would be cool, if it hadn't been the story of the game (here there is just 0.1 seconds to the buzzer, which made it extra special), and he still scored 43 (plus the assists, the rebounds etc, but more amazingly with a grand total of ZERO turn-overs).

[sfernald]

Ainge hinted this superstar might be available for only 2 unprotected first rounders!

[mcmurphy]

Amazing performance, amazing play from him throughout the tournament and certainly thread worthy.

But it's not something that makes NY media look "silly" or is indicative in any way of him being a "building block" for the Jazz. It's very different being a good shot creator and maker on a team with zero NBA caliber players (Finland's second best player is Sasu Salin who by NBA standards is not good at anything) versus being one on an NBA team. I think the best case scenario for both the Jazz and Lauri is that he's given a lot of freedom this season, he balls out and is then traded for a 1st round pick next offseason to a team that's genuinely trying to compete.

You are correct, but on the other hand, it is impressive to score so much so efficiently when you are such a focal point, to a point entire opponent plan is to just stop you. I would say, he might have been best scorer in entire Eurobasket.
I undertand the skepticism, the evidence of who he is at this point in the NBA is heavy, but its not like he sucks, 15.4 ppg. on 57 TS% over his career, still just 25 years old. I think the guy will probably gonna have 20 ppg. season, it will be interesting to see what Fonteccio averages, he is probably good for 10 ppg. I think both of these guys looked WAY better than Bojan Bogdanovic, who himself has had near 20 ppg seasons on that Utah pretender/contender team.

... and are under contract for less of 20 millions (both, 16.5+3.2)