Lauri Markkanen Discussion Thread

[FriedRise]

That's in line with modern interior play in the NBA. Ball movement, spacing, cuts. The traditional static post-up is all but dead. It's a super inefficient way to try to score.

The Bulls have been killing teams lately on switches. Particularly Thad. As soon as the team sees that a small guy is on Thad, they stop the motion offense and isolate Thad in the post. He frequently kills them.

This has a lot of positive knock ons. Teams will double down and Thad will hit an open shooter. Also, teams are less likely to switch. When you watch a guy like Embiid, defending teams will functionally panic when Embiid has a small guy on him.

No one is saying that Lauri needs to be running post plays as a pre-planned call against other 7 footers. That's bad basketball. That said, he has to be able to punish switches and so far he hasn't. Its one of the many reasons why the Thad / Lavine pick and roll looks a lot better than Lauri / Lavine.

If Lauri ever found himself in a playoff series against a team that was gameplanning for him, he might really put the team in a bind because opponents would be free to go small against him. Not only does he struggle in the post against smaller defenders but he doesn't shoot over them well when they are up on him.

Frankly we haven't seen much of Lauri/Lavine pnr. That's something I want to see more of. And the reason why thad/Lavine pnr works is because thad can then have open shooters to pass it to. Replace thad with Lauri and then you have one less shooter in the perimeter to pass it too

BD was asked yesterday specifically about the Zach/Lauri thing and why we haven't seen much of it (around 11m mark):
https://www.radio.com/670thescore/sports/chicago-bulls/bulls-billy-donovan-explains-why-he-admires-coby-white

Basically it's because they haven't worked on it at all during practice so there's been 0 chemistry between those two.

We tend to see more Zach/Thad pnr probably because Thad has been pretty vocal about what he wants to do or what they should do during those situations, and they've obviously been pretty successful at it. Repetition matters. With Lauri, you can probably guess that he doesn't really have the personality to bring things up during practice, games, etc. so that whole conversation would entirely have to rest on Zach or the coach calling specific plays featuring those two (less likely to happen in BD's free-flowing system).

Not putting all the blame on Lauri because Zach obviously can bring it up also but hasn't. Billy said it's part of the leadership part that Zach is obviously still learning.

[PaKii94]

Side note: I went back and watched Lauri's FGA from January to March of the "FebruLauri" season. His play from then is night and day compared to now (for the better).

He was a lot weaker, primarily a shooter who over relied on the drag step. All his midrange shots were weak fadeaways where his drives would be cut off or bailout end of the clock shots. His 3 point shot was a lot more inconsistent (you can see the elbow injury having an effect on his form). The positive was you could see the elite finishing at the rim developing. Once he got to the rim he usually finished okay but if he got bumped it would be a out of wack shot.

You can see the over reliance on the drag step jumper in his low 2pt%.


This year he's actually making it all the way to the rim. Players are bouncing off of him. The drag step has become more hooks/runners. He's taken out the bad mid range shots (if he gets stopped it's a quick pass out to the next motion). Then we have improvements to the 3 point shot which is a lot more consistent.

The next thing up for him is learning to draw FTs. That's what changed regular Lauri into FebruLauri. This year lauri has been trying to finesse at the rim (and it's working) but he needs to sell the contact for the fouls.

[PaKii94]

The Bulls have been killing teams lately on switches. Particularly Thad. As soon as the team sees that a small guy is on Thad, they stop the motion offense and isolate Thad in the post. He frequently kills them.

This has a lot of positive knock ons. Teams will double down and Thad will hit an open shooter. Also, teams are less likely to switch. When you watch a guy like Embiid, defending teams will functionally panic when Embiid has a small guy on him.

No one is saying that Lauri needs to be running post plays as a pre-planned call against other 7 footers. That's bad basketball. That said, he has to be able to punish switches and so far he hasn't. Its one of the many reasons why the Thad / Lavine pick and roll looks a lot better than Lauri / Lavine.

If Lauri ever found himself in a playoff series against a team that was gameplanning for him, he might really put the team in a bind because opponents would be free to go small against him. Not only does he struggle in the post against smaller defenders but he doesn't shoot over them well when they are up on him.

Frankly we haven't seen much of Lauri/Lavine pnr. That's something I want to see more of. And the reason why thad/Lavine pnr works is because thad can then have open shooters to pass it to. Replace thad with Lauri and then you have one less shooter in the perimeter to pass it too

BD was asked yesterday specifically about the Zach/Lauri thing and why we haven't seen much of it (around 11m mark):
https://www.radio.com/670thescore/sports/chicago-bulls/bulls-billy-donovan-explains-why-he-admires-coby-white

Basically it's because they haven't worked on it at all during practice so there's been 0 chemistry between those two.

We tend to see more Zach/Thad pnr probably because Thad has been pretty vocal about what he wants to do or what they should do during those situations, and they've obviously been pretty successful at it. Repetition matters. With Lauri, you can probably guess that he doesn't really have the personality to bring things up during practice, games, etc. so that whole conversation would entirely have to rest on Zach or the coach calling specific plays featuring those two (less likely to happen in BD's free-flowing system).

Not putting all the blame on Lauri because Zach obviously can bring it up also but hasn't. Billy said it's part of the leadership part that Zach is obviously still learning.

It's pretty obvious they don't practice and together but it's a travesty. BD needs to emphasize it. It's such a pick your poison kinda thing

[Hugi Mancura]

The Bulls have been killing teams lately on switches. Particularly Thad. As soon as the team sees that a small guy is on Thad, they stop the motion offense and isolate Thad in the post. He frequently kills them.

This has a lot of positive knock ons. Teams will double down and Thad will hit an open shooter. Also, teams are less likely to switch. When you watch a guy like Embiid, defending teams will functionally panic when Embiid has a small guy on him.

No one is saying that Lauri needs to be running post plays as a pre-planned call against other 7 footers. That's bad basketball. That said, he has to be able to punish switches and so far he hasn't. Its one of the many reasons why the Thad / Lavine pick and roll looks a lot better than Lauri / Lavine.

If Lauri ever found himself in a playoff series against a team that was gameplanning for him, he might really put the team in a bind because opponents would be free to go small against him. Not only does he struggle in the post against smaller defenders but he doesn't shoot over them well when they are up on him.

Frankly we haven't seen much of Lauri/Lavine pnr. That's something I want to see more of. And the reason why thad/Lavine pnr works is because thad can then have open shooters to pass it to. Replace thad with Lauri and then you have one less shooter in the perimeter to pass it too

Lauri hasn't been on the court for most of Thad's passing. He has been injured. Lauri isn't contributing to Thad's passing options in street clothes on the bench.

We have seen Lauri as a PnR guy a fair amount. Lauri is a mediocre at best pick and roll guy. 1.08ppp this year. 0.95 last year.

But still best in the Bulls team as a big man. So everyone else is lousier, is this because Bulls big suck as a big man in pick&roll or is this because Bulls ballhandlers suck as ballhandlers in pick&roll. No matter which is the truth, but with those stats Bulls shouldn't play pick&roll. So if we get best big man and best ballhandler from Bulls team it would mean Lavine & Lauri. Also everyone should know if you have two persons. One who can't shoot and one who can, you will ALWAYS use the non shooter as pick&roll screener. This way you force other team to defend the pick&roll with two guys while if you use the shooter then it means the non-shooters guy can also defend the pick&roll and thus turning it to 2 against 3 situation. This is the first thing people teach in basketball schools and this is the main reason why we don't see that much Lauri&Lavine pick&roll.

Actually didn't check the stats very well. It was missing times when Thad was used as big man, so don't really know how well Thad has worked as roller.

And for the Thad + Lauri combo. With Lauri Thad throws 9 assists per 36 minutes and without him 5.6 assists per 36 minutes, so impact is obvious. It doesn't remove the fact that Thad is passing very good even without him, but with Lauri he is a Rondo, Kidd and Nash level. It is really not a surprise. Everyone is a better passer if you have a better shooter to pass the ball to and Lauri is shooting very well this year.

[PaKii94]

I think people underrate Lauri's impact because they have already decided who he is as a player based on past play. Lauri's been really good this year (small sample size blah blah) but it's not just as simple as "he's making his shots". It's the intangibles that have gone up. I subscribed to BBall-Index stats for a month to see how the bulls fare. Here is what stands out about Lauri. And maybe puts some myths to rest.

1) "All Lauri does is take open shots". That's not all that true. This year he's been making tough shots.

His openness rating for 3 pt attempts is [47%, C] and 3pt shot quality (An overall measure of shot quality, combining shot location, openness, and type) is [37%, D+] meaning he's taking relatively contested shots.
However he's been [90%, A-] on shot making and [88%, A-] on perimeter shooting overall. His "3pt gravity rate" is [100%, A] for those of you who say he doesn't have gravity. That's a valuable skill in itself to have regardless of the rest of the game. His overall scoring gravity is pretty high too [82%, A-]

2) "Lauri is weak at the rim". Not true again. In the past yeah I'll give it to you, but he's improved his finishing tremendously this year. HIs finishing at the rim went from year 2 to now: [62%, B-; 41%, C-; 78%, B+ ]. His paint touches are not that high but when he has it, his post up impact is [91%, A] and post up assist rate [89%, A-]

3) Lauri's weakness of defense is overstated. It's not great but it's "average". He rates poorly on the counting stats [Fs all around], but his rim protection is underrated (from bottom of league to slightly below neutral) His rim contest rate is [76%, B+] meaning he's facing a lot of shots at the rim but his [Rim dFG% vs Expected] and [Adj. Rim Points Saved / 36] are both fine [63%, B-] & [63%, B-]

Unfortunately they don't have enough perimeter defense data. That's still pending.

4) "Lauri needs more boards". Partially true. He's not crashing the O-Board as much but as others have noted, there has been an emphasis at getting back in transition. When he does get the oBoard his putback ratings are pretty high. His D-Board ratings are fine. From the opportunities he's getting his Real Adjusted DReb Rate is [99%, A]. He could improve on his contested DReb Rate [41%,C-] but they also including a "how far from the rim metric" which he's at [39%, D+] meaning he's not really near the rim for these boards.

5) Finally the thing that makes Lauri special is the efficiency. Across the board for most of the different playstyles he's at 90%+ and A rating. The only one he's poor in is handoff PPP [36%, D+] but I think we barely see that from him.

[coldfish]

3) Lauri's weakness of defense is overstated. It's not great but it's "average". He rates poorly on the counting stats [Fs all around], but his rim protection is underrated (from bottom of league to slightly below neutral) His rim contest rate is [76%, B+] meaning he's facing a lot of shots at the rim but his [Rim dFG% vs Expected] and [Adj. Rim Points Saved / 36] are both fine [63%, B-] & [63%, B-]

Unfortunately they don't have enough perimeter defense data. That's still pending.

Lauri isn't an average defender. He is terrible. His biggest flaw is off ball defense where he usually chooses not to participate in the team defensive scheme. As the Bulls have taught us, helping onto ballhandlers or "helping the helper" is a key facet to a functional NBA defense. Its not some optional task. All 5 guys on the court have to participate in it.

.........

In the "trade Thad" thread, people are saying that Thad could net the Bulls a pick in the mid teens. If they seriously believe that, what do they think Lauri could net?

If the Bulls could trade Lauri for a pick likely to be in the 10-15 range, I would do it so fast heads would spin. Teams don't win by paying Kyle Korver $20m+ per year and starting him at PF.

[Ice Man]

[In the "trade Thad" thread, people are saying that Thad could net the Bulls a pick in the mid teens.

How so? Thad's appeal is for a title contender. He's a great piece for a team that has almost everything. An Iggy, Crowder type of pickup. (Well, he's currently a lot better than Iggy, so say Iggy of 4 years ago). But those teams will have #25 draft picks, not mid teens.

[coldfish]

[In the "trade Thad" thread, people are saying that Thad could net the Bulls a pick in the mid teens.

How so? Thad's appeal is for a title contender. He's a great piece for a team that has almost everything. An Iggy, Crowder type of pickup. (Well, he's currently a lot better than Iggy, so say Iggy of 4 years ago). But those teams will have #25 draft picks, not mid teens.

If you read the thread in question, I agree with you. Thad is getting you a pick in the late 20's at best. I'm just pointing out the corollary to that assertion which is that if Thad is worth a pick in the teens, Lauri has to be worth more.

I suspect that the real answer is that Lauri could only fetch a pick in the teens at which point its a more difficult decision.

[Tetlak]

3) Lauri's weakness of defense is overstated. It's not great but it's "average". He rates poorly on the counting stats [Fs all around], but his rim protection is underrated (from bottom of league to slightly below neutral) His rim contest rate is [76%, B+] meaning he's facing a lot of shots at the rim but his [Rim dFG% vs Expected] and [Adj. Rim Points Saved / 36] are both fine [63%, B-] & [63%, B-]

Unfortunately they don't have enough perimeter defense data. That's still pending.

Lauri isn't an average defender. He is terrible. His biggest flaw is off ball defense where he usually chooses not to participate in the team defensive scheme. As the Bulls have taught us, helping onto ballhandlers or "helping the helper" is a key facet to a functional NBA defense. Its not some optional task. All 5 guys on the court have to participate in it.

.........

In the "trade Thad" thread, people are saying that Thad could net the Bulls a pick in the mid teens. If they seriously believe that, what do they think Lauri could net?

If the Bulls could trade Lauri for a pick likely to be in the 10-15 range, I would do it so fast heads would spin. Teams don't win by paying Kyle Korver $20m+ per year and starting him at PF.

We'd be lucky if Lauri played team defense as well as Korver did.

[PaKii94]

3) Lauri's weakness of defense is overstated. It's not great but it's "average". He rates poorly on the counting stats [Fs all around], but his rim protection is underrated (from bottom of league to slightly below neutral) His rim contest rate is [76%, B+] meaning he's facing a lot of shots at the rim but his [Rim dFG% vs Expected] and [Adj. Rim Points Saved / 36] are both fine [63%, B-] & [63%, B-]

Unfortunately they don't have enough perimeter defense data. That's still pending.

Lauri isn't an average defender. He is terrible. His biggest flaw is off ball defense where he usually chooses not to participate in the team defensive scheme. As the Bulls have taught us, helping onto ballhandlers or "helping the helper" is a key facet to a functional NBA defense. Its not some optional task. All 5 guys on the court have to participate in it.

.........

In the "trade Thad" thread, people are saying that Thad could net the Bulls a pick in the mid teens. If they seriously believe that, what do they think Lauri could net?

If the Bulls could trade Lauri for a pick likely to be in the 10-15 range, I would do it so fast heads would spin. Teams don't win by paying Kyle Korver $20m+ per year and starting him at PF.

I agree lauri can and should be better defender but let's put it into perspective. A below average defender is below the average like 60% of the time, above average like 40% of the time. Lauri to me isn't the flaw. he's just not a game changer either way on defense. If you have good defense he'll look adequate. If you have a bad defense, he'll look that much worse. He can more than make up for it on the offensive end.

You can harp that he's a worst in the league defender all you want but it doesn't seem to be the reality. I tend to listen to the people who are working with him more than arm chair analysts. And frankly my position on his defense seems to align with what the coaches see also. All the coaches he's worked with have never put him down for his defense so far throughout his bulls career. They haven't gone the other way (praising defense) either but there has been countless opportunities for them to do so if your view on his defense was the case. You seem to think he's putrid at help defense, maybe he's playing his role?

Before you make the "coach speak" excuse, even then there hasn't been a hint towards putting the blame on his defense in that regards. Here is Billy's interview last night. He was explicitly asked about Lauri's role on the defense at 4:50. Why doesn't Billy moan and groan about Lauri's defense there?

https://www.pscp.tv/w/1mnxeamXwwLxX

Our PNR defense hinges on the 1 and 5. Lauri's coverage is the weakside shooter usually. The defense is breaking down because coby (always) and Lavine (sometimes) die on the screen constantly. Usually a good defensive 5 can cover for the lapses but WCJ is also struggling at the moment. So we end up with a layup line with no pressure at the start or end. No matter of help defense from Lauri is going to solve that.

[dougthonus]

I would trade Lauri for whatever the most we can get for him is at the deadline, even if that was two 2nd rounders. I do not want him back next year at what I anticipate his price to be. If we could lock up him up for 15M sure, but Just don't see that happening.

[sco]

I would trade Lauri for whatever the most we can get for him is at the deadline, even if that was two 2nd rounders. I do not want him back next year at what I anticipate his price to be. If we could lock up him up for 15M sure, but Just don't see that happening.

Doug, I'm with you bro.

I just want a guy who I have confidence will play more than 70% of his next deal. Honestly, if I had more comfort in his durability, I'd think differently about keeping him.

[FriedRise]

Contract year Lauri is averaging:

19ppg 6rpg in 30mpg on 63/43/84 shooting
18 PER, 67% TS

With this kind of elite offensive performance, he will get a monster offer sheet from somebody this offseason - if not the max outright. There are teams with good perimeter defense, rim protection, and/or playmaking that will think they can get the most out of his uber efficient production. It's too bad that in Chicago we keep putting him (and all our other bigs for that matter) in tough 2-on-1 situations because the guards can't get their **** together on defense.

[chefo]

I think people giving Lauri that much grief come from a case of underperforming unrealistic expectations.

Lauri is a flawed player. If he gets paid $20M, that's reflected in his salary. If he were a good defender, he'd be maxed out on the spot, even with his health issues. If he were Dirk on O, same and he'd be underpaid. If he could create for others and average 4 assists per game like Thad, same.

He has a skill that EVERY franchise in the NBA covets--this year, he puts the ball in the hoop at an absolute elite level of efficiency and at a high volume, and without dominating the ball. Guys that give you 20 per game in only 30 min and on only 40 touches a game (which is 3rd/4h option level of touches, depending on the team), on nearly 70% TS are some of rarest breed of players out there.

You can back-hand compliment him that he's just a Korver, but Kyle, as much as I enjoyed watching him, never, ever in his career came to close to averaging 20 per game. There's a very good reason why.

Kyle is 6'6 barefoot, which is to say, he couldn't just shoot whenever he felt like it. He had to run his posterior off all game to see any daylight. Lauri is legit 7 feet tall and has a high and very quick release. Of the 7 3s last night, for example, 5 were either semi or fully contested where he just shot it over his defender. On another one, he actually got hit with no call. For the average 6'6 or 6'7 guy, these shots are neither open, nor even available to take because they wouldn't be able to get them off to begin with. Being able to shoot well over people is something that very few on here seem to appreciate. It's not a easily replicable skill--very, very players can actually do it.

The Bulls lost because the team as a whole played **** D all game. From Coby, to Zach, who didn't try on either end last night, to PaW, to Lauri to WCJ, to Sato, Temple and even Thad. A lot of times they all got scored on 1-on-1. The drop coverage, especially when Wendell is in, is utterly and unspeakably poorly executed by the entire team. As coach D mentioned in one of his interviews, they are playing it so as to minimize the decision-making on D in terms of help by the players other than the C--in other words, most of our roster is too young, stupid and inexperienced to play help D consistently, and especially against good teams. The problem is, WCJ sucks royally in said coverage, and especially when the G/wings get caught on the screens. Like royally. It was like a parade of layups and 8 foot floaters that were mostly uncontested.

As I've opined previously--there's a tipping point where too many young guys on the floor just leads to poor basketball. PaW is the perfect example--when he doesn't get touches, he's absolutely worthless on the court right now--he doesn't do anything better than average apart from scoring. He's currently a bad defender, a poor rebounder, a poor creator, and lacks aggression. When WCJ is in a huge funk as well, as he's been for the last 5-6 games (including 3 or 4 of the worst games of his career), having these two in ANY lineup is just plain murderous, if you try to win games. Coby, for half his minutes out there is also that bad.

Hate to break it to people, but unless Zach goes superman, you're not winning anything against any decent team when 2.5 players (with an average age of 20) in your starting lineup are playing like utter crap in their 30 min/game. Just not going to happen. We're so devoid of experienced high-quality talent that a mid 30s journeyman like Temple and a 5th option like Sato usually make us look vastly better, just because they are not like headless chicken out there.

The point being--Zach and Lauri both have an extremely useful NBA quality--they are incredibly efficient NBA scorers. You can win with these two, but you need players that cover for their deficiencies, not super-charge them. Instead, for reasons coach D explained in his last interview, they are playing the kids so that they can see if they can push through and get better over the season. They know they're playing players that are hurting them on the court, but they'll keep doing it anyways. And, most of the kids' minutes are alongside Zach and Lauri, who are not some BBall-IQ savants who can calm the team down either. Tipping point of bball stupid reached.

When you have 2 guys that can give you 50 combined points per game in Zach and Lauri on 65%+ TS, you need people who can shoot when open, play tough D, and move the ball if they don't have a shot--in other words, younger prime "Thads" that are not playing out of position (Thad's an essence a 6'7, short-armed center these days).

Anyhow, I was surprised that Lauri, of all people, was getting grief last night, because his offense was the only thing that kept this game from being one of the worst blowouts in Bulls history because the entire team shat the bed on D.

[kingkirk]

Look at the list of players with Lauri’s 3PAr (55%), FTr (23%), and minutes per.

It’s essentially a list of specialised shooters i.e. Buddy Hield, PJ Tucker, Joe Harris, Robert Covington.

Markkanen at this point is essentially a SF who doesn’t impact the game much beyond spacing the floor and shooting jumpers, but unlike many of his contemporaries who post similar numbers I noted above, he’s asked to guard the rim (because he’s a big).

And he can’t.

I don’t know what more evidence we need but he’s a role guy if I’ve ever seen, and I’d be reluctant to pay him anything more than to be one.

[greenl]

Lauri can't play the 5- and PWill is the future 4. I'd move Lauri now for whatever you can get for him.

[Stratmaster]

That's in line with modern interior play in the NBA. Ball movement, spacing, cuts. The traditional static post-up is all but dead. It's a super inefficient way to try to score.

The Bulls have been killing teams lately on switches. Particularly Thad. As soon as the team sees that a small guy is on Thad, they stop the motion offense and isolate Thad in the post. He frequently kills them.

This has a lot of positive knock ons. Teams will double down and Thad will hit an open shooter. Also, teams are less likely to switch. When you watch a guy like Embiid, defending teams will functionally panic when Embiid has a small guy on him.

No one is saying that Lauri needs to be running post plays as a pre-planned call against other 7 footers. That's bad basketball. That said, he has to be able to punish switches and so far he hasn't. Its one of the many reasons why the Thad / Lavine pick and roll looks a lot better than Lauri / Lavine.

If Lauri ever found himself in a playoff series against a team that was gameplanning for him, he might really put the team in a bind because opponents would be free to go small against him. Not only does he struggle in the post against smaller defenders but he doesn't shoot over them well when they are up on him.

Frankly we haven't seen much of Lauri/Lavine pnr. That's something I want to see more of. And the reason why thad/Lavine pnr works is because thad can then have open shooters to pass it to. Replace thad with Lauri and then you have one less shooter in the perimeter to pass it too

I wish this were true and all we needed is another shooter for Lauri to pass to. The successful Lavine Thad PnR has mostly been run with Lauri not on the court.

Sent from my SM-G965U using RealGM mobile app

[PaKii94]

Look at the list of players with Lauri’s 3PAr (55%), FTr (23%), and minutes per.

It’s essentially a list of specialised shooters i.e. Buddy Hield, PJ Tucker, Joe Harris, Robert Covington.

Markkanen at this point is essentially a SF who doesn’t impact the game much beyond spacing the floor and shooting jumpers, but unlike many of his contemporaries who post similar numbers I noted above, he’s asked to guard the rim (because he’s a big).

And he can’t.

I don’t know what more evidence we need but he’s a role guy if I’ve ever seen, and I’d be reluctant to pay him anything more than to be one.

There is a difference between what he CAN do, what he is being used as, and what opportunities he's getting. He is playing like an oversized shooting SF. Why? We have incompetence at PG and our second playmaking position at C. The only opportunites he's getting in the starting lineup with Coby and WCJ playing hot potato for 80% of the time is catch and shoot from the 3. Those two bumbling around have like a 10% success rate finding him for cuts and other opportunities. There is a reason why the team plays better when sato/thad are substituted in and why Lauri seems magically better.

Also this is not affecting just lauri either. The "passive" play we see from Lavine at the beginning of games is also a cause of the incompetence from PG/C. They aren't finding our scorers in the right spots. Lavine however is a guard so he gets some opportunities to create for himself (and he struggled with that last night) besides that both Lauri and Lavine are being under utilized with Coby and WCJ as the playmakers.

[PaKii94]

The Bulls have been killing teams lately on switches. Particularly Thad. As soon as the team sees that a small guy is on Thad, they stop the motion offense and isolate Thad in the post. He frequently kills them.

This has a lot of positive knock ons. Teams will double down and Thad will hit an open shooter. Also, teams are less likely to switch. When you watch a guy like Embiid, defending teams will functionally panic when Embiid has a small guy on him.

No one is saying that Lauri needs to be running post plays as a pre-planned call against other 7 footers. That's bad basketball. That said, he has to be able to punish switches and so far he hasn't. Its one of the many reasons why the Thad / Lavine pick and roll looks a lot better than Lauri / Lavine.

If Lauri ever found himself in a playoff series against a team that was gameplanning for him, he might really put the team in a bind because opponents would be free to go small against him. Not only does he struggle in the post against smaller defenders but he doesn't shoot over them well when they are up on him.

Frankly we haven't seen much of Lauri/Lavine pnr. That's something I want to see more of. And the reason why thad/Lavine pnr works is because thad can then have open shooters to pass it to. Replace thad with Lauri and then you have one less shooter in the perimeter to pass it too

I wish this were true and all we needed is another shooter for Lauri to pass to. The successful Lavine Thad PnR has mostly been run with Lauri not on the court.

Sent from my SM-G965U using RealGM mobile app

I was specifically talking about why Lavine/Lauri pnr aren't optimized. Also I think friedRise already pointed out Lauri being on/off the court affects thad going from thadgic johnson level assists (9apg) to (6apg) or a 50% increase. So yeah I think Lauri does help thad.

[chefo]

Look at the list of players with Lauri’s 3PAr (55%), FTr (23%), and minutes per.

It’s essentially a list of specialised shooters i.e. Buddy Hield, PJ Tucker, Joe Harris, Robert Covington.

Markkanen at this point is essentially a SF who doesn’t impact the game much beyond spacing the floor and shooting jumpers, but unlike many of his contemporaries who post similar numbers I noted above, he’s asked to guard the rim (because he’s a big).

And he can’t.

I don’t know what more evidence we need but he’s a role guy if I’ve ever seen, and I’d be reluctant to pay him anything more than to be one.

Any of these score 20/game in only 30 min? Or finish at nearly 80%+ at the rim?

Lauri's D is fair game to be critiqued. But to critique his O this year? For real? Lauri's like all-NBA in the intersection of scoring output and efficiency of output. When you're that much better than the best specialists--you're no longer just a specialist.

BTW, I'd absolutely love to have Joe Harris, even at his 16M salary. Replace PaW with him in our lineup and our W/L is probably flipped or better.