PhilLeotardo wrote:drosereturn wrote:PhilLeotardo wrote:
I wouldn’t necessarily be opposed to it. Of course, you’d rather not have to do that, but often times when there’s an extreme regime change & complete cultural transformation/evolution, it makes sense to start fresh in every way you can
Markkanen (and perhaps WCJ also) has a bitter & negative view of the Chicago Bulls franchise due to the horribly toxic way they operated over the past three years & handled him specifically. Of course that’s all over with now, but the resentment could still linger, possibly toward ownership
I dunno about a complete front court overhaul, but I could see them trading Markkanen. WCJ imo will remain due to the rookie contract & the fact that he hasn’t really gotten an opportunity to show out yet. He was looking very good alongside Coby over the last 9/10 games of the season, prior to the abrupt ending
except your making sutff up. Lauri showed why he is a Dirk archetype along with KP a season ago but Boylen and management targeted him to intentionally suck which is why he had resentment. why would he be pissed at jr when he got punished for being cheap and had to pay 2 coaches at the same time?
its funny you claim WCJ has rookie contract when he is barely 1 yr apart and he has shown nothing he will never eclipse Lauri even if Lauri missed 82 games. call me back when Wendell puts up 19 and 9 bc he never will in his entire career.
I’m beginning to think that you’re either messing with me, or that there is some inside joke here about Markkanen being a 1st option calibre prospect
If you’re being serious (I don’t think you are), what on earth are you watching? Youve got to be watching a different player entirely. As far as defensive potential ALONE is concerned, Markkanen doesn’t share a dang thing in common with Porzingis. Like, they aren’t even in the same remote stratosphere. Let’s not even mention athleticism, strength, ball handling ability, etc. Markkanen is a stiff, Porzingis is a freak. Porzingis was drafted for his potentially-generational defensive upside
I have no idea why you’re comparing him to Nowitzki. They don’t share anything in common. Are these comparisons racially-driven? What do they have in common? Nowitzki was a singular athlete for his size & even at his most raw, anyone could see that his above average ball handling ability & deft/nimble foot speed were going to enable him to do some very special things as a 7 footer. Markkanen doesn’t have any of that going for him. He can’t create for himself, he can’t create for those around him, he’s slower than a sloth on a Thorazine bender, his ball handling sucks, he’s not a good nor smart passer, etc etc etc I mean the list of deficiencies goes on & on, and are enhanced by his epic lack of foot speed, which isn’t going to magically improve, ever
He’s still an intriguing prospect, but he’s a KVH at best/Ryan Anderson at worst player. He has nothing in common with Dirk nor Porzingis, who both possess generational abilities for their respective sizes. Markkanen doesn’t have any generational skills nor measurements. He’s a tall slow dude with a paltry wingspan, who is an awful defender, and who’s ceiling is probably the 4th best player on a winning team (maybe), provided said team has a competent offensive system in place. He certainly isn’t anyone worthy of being a centerpiece on an NBA squad lol. He’s never shown a Nowitzki nor KP archetype, that never happened. And WCJ May never put up consistently gaudy offensive #s (he could though), but there’s this other facet of basketball, and it’s called defense. Markkanen absolutely sucks at it & likely always will. WCJ is already very good at it & projects to eventually be really, really good at it
A couple of notes:
On some points I agree, on some I differ.
Agree on:
* WCJ will almost always be a better team defender than Lauri. Lauri neither has the instinct to play help D, nor has anybody coached him up in that regard. Last year he went from horrible, to below average, in a similar progression to Lavine, but they are both still net negative defenders. As a matter of fact, Lauri on D is very similar to Lavine. Let him guard 1-on-1, and he can usually hold his own, even against guards and wings on the perimeter. Make him rotate, or pay attention off ball, and he loses the plot almost entirely. Which is why I would rather he guards 3s and let Otto or the other big wing rotate to help schematically.
* There is no point in comparing him to Unicorn on D. Porzingis is a legit Gobert-like anchor when healthy. He blocks a lot and challenges a lot. Lauri will never be that because he's much shorter and doesn't have the wingspan for it.
Things I disagree on:
* Lauri can only be the 4th best offensive player on a good team. Lauri did 21/10 per 36 as a 21-year old soph. His sophomore year was much better than Dirk's, for example, and he had the pleasure of playing with Jerian Grant and Zach as his primary ball-handlers and Bobby and Jabari as fellow scoring PFs.
I watched Dirk's entire career, and while prime Dirk was something special, young Dirk was not that much better than soph Lauri. You could see the talent, but he was still behind in the pecking order on those Mav teams. Dirk did not become Dirk until Steve Nash took the reigns for the Mavs and it took him a good 4-5 seasons until he reached his prime. One of the reasons why I, for example, was so high on Lauri coming into last year, was precisely because he was ahead of Dirk on the development curve, at a younger age. I just never imagined what abomination of an O the FO and coaching staff would put together. To me getting Lauri to actually average 21/8 for a season was by far the lowest hanging fruit in terms of development.
Lauri has the potential to be extremely valuable for the same reason Dirk was. At 7 feet tall, if he learns how to play the right way, he would be very difficult to stop, no matter what the D does. That's an incredibly rare thing as a ceiling. And, he can get there even without adding a single skill to his current arsenal. If he actually smartens up OR gets somebody to teach him proper low-post and mid-post footwork, he can be really special, IMO.
I also think you're confusing poor footwork for being a stiff. These are not the same things. Lauri has poor footwork on O, absolutely true. But to call him a stiff at his height is disingenuous. He's 7 feet tall. Don't judge him based on criteria for players half a foot shorter than him. He's very fast for a guy that tall and is a pretty good vertical athlete for his size as well. He'll never be as nimble as a 6'7 guy, ever. But neither is Anthony Davis, and he seems to be doing just fine. That's not a reasonable criteria to judge anybody not named Giannis by.
The other thing that one must consider is that even if he ends up shooting 36-38% for his career on 3s, he's doing it at a very high volume, because he can just shoot over people and being able to shoot 6-7 times at these percentages has a quality of its own. Lauri, for the last 2 years, is the only Bull apart from Zach that was obviously game-planned for by opposing Ds. And, as a soph, he was still able to put up 19 points in only 30 min.
FebruLauri, as short as it was, was not that different from prime Dirk in terms of production. Which is to say, he has it in him. The question is, can he keep it up for a season and stay healthy. One of Dirk's big pluses was his longevity and durability.
I think the the biggest difference in opinion comes to what you think his ceiling is. Based on your posts, you think he can easily be taken out of the game, if he's game-planned for because you don't see a generational physical specimen. I actually think it's the exact opposite. I think once he's coached up, he'll be near impossible to be game-planned for. His hand-eye coordination and athleticism to me are extremely rare at his height. His ability to shoot over people is extremely valuable when D's tighten up.
Anyhow, to me, Lauri is the lowest hanging fruit for coach Donovan and the FO to pluck to make themselves look good. I don't think it would be that difficult to get him to 19-21/7-8 per game, just by tweaking how he's used, let alone if he shows actual personal improvement, and then this board will be singing a different tune plenty fast.