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Lauri Markkanen Hype & Appreciation Thread

Great response! Thanks!
Im happy if thats the case. Even if he does the full 6 months he would be back in october. Not ideal but not the end of the world.
Seems extremely not ideal to me. Him being full time military for six months and then coming back to an already active NBA season with no preparation or conditioning sounds rough.

Too bad it’s not a full year thing. Would be nice to do a complete tank job next year and steal a first from OKC
We shoulda sent him away to do this in the middle of the season after it was obvious he was awesome and ****ing up the tank after 10 games or so. I wanted to be all in next season. Our best guy doing no off season prep at all is not great.

Don't love this.
 
Seems extremely not ideal to me. Him being full time military for six months and then coming back to an already active NBA season with no preparation or conditioning sounds rough.


We shoulda sent him away to do this in the middle of the season after it was obvious he was awesome and ****ing up the tank after 10 games or so. I wanted to be all in next season. Our best guy doing no off season prep at all is not great.

Don't love this.
It remains to be seen what his service actually entails. I expect he will still be spending a ton of time working on his game and with access to trainers. I think there’s even an outside chance the Jazz just hold training camp there.

But yeah, I generally share the concern of the potential for him to come into the season unprepared. The off-season is usually where most of the noticeable growth comes from and unnoticed maintenance goes on.
 
Seems extremely not ideal to me. Him being full time military for six months and then coming back to an already active NBA season with no preparation or conditioning sounds rough.

We shoulda sent him away to do this in the middle of the season after it was obvious he was awesome and ****ing up the tank after 10 games or so. I wanted to be all in next season. Our best guy doing no off season prep at all is not great.
This is not at all what will happen.

First of all he'll come to SLC pretty much straight away after the World Cup, which ends early September. He'll be back in good time for the start of training camp.

Secondly, he'll be on top shape (just as this year) to start the season, after a month of the national team's training camp and playing against the best in the world in the World Cup.

He'll have an unusual summer for sure, but he'll put in just as much work as last summer. Sure, he won't get to be with his family in Finland as much, won't have time off to relax etc. If anyone should be worried about anything, it's a little bit of mental fatigue. But knowing Lauri, I doubt that will be a problem.

From April to early August he'll wake up every day at 6-7am, have maybe 6hrs of military training, lifting/conditioning with the whole group during the day and then do basketball stuff after 4pm. And he'll probably have a more than a few 18yo b-ballers from the Army Sports School's intake willing to do whatever Lauri asks of them in the gym. And he'll have most weekends off (after boot camp period is over) plus a few Mondays for good measure.

And the team doesn't get to send anyone anywhere. There was no chance in hell of Lauri going anywhere in the middle of his All Star breakout season. Plus it's a moot point anyway because you can only start your military service on specific dates with the rest of the group. In Lauri's case April 17th.

It remains to be seen what his service actually entails.
Very standard stuff. Sitting in a class room: starting with rote learning of military ranks, how to salute officers etc. Then some very basic tactics and actual military stuff. Other basics in the barracks: weapons handling, walking in formation etc. And that's a lot more of the rote learning. People will remember 30 years on how to take apart and put back their rifle even if they don't touch a gun in their life between then and serving. Out in the field some target practice and then a couple of "camping trips" in the woods. And I'm sure the unit's commanding officers are smart and won't send Lauri on a 15k march with full pack to mess his feet even if the rest of the group goes - maybe they'll magically happen to schedule his pre World Cup media availability on the exact date that's on the calendar for the company... Any injury to Lauri during his service would be an absolute ******** of negative PR for the military. And even more so with the World Cup this summer.

I think there’s even an outside chance the Jazz just hold training camp there.
Zero chance.
 
Seems extremely not ideal to me. Him being full time military for six months and then coming back to an already active NBA season with no preparation or conditioning sounds rough.
They got good facilities for athletes to train in and I think their personal trainers can be there. Military training is essentially 9-5 thing with some exceptions like the occasional overnight camping.. plenty of time after the formal training to do your own thing.

Obviously will lack reps with the team.

We shoulda sent him away to do this in the middle of the season after it was obvious he was awesome and ****ing up the tank after 10 games or so. I wanted to be all in next season. Our best guy doing no off season prep at all is not great.

Don't love this.
You are living in some alternate reality where you can clip the wings of a 10-3 team and tell them "you are supposed to be bad" then send their best player away and next year they are all of a sudden gonna not only be happy but contend.

Also he not only misses ASG, and the possible MIP and All-NBA he could get, but also the midseason leap from 23 to 28 PPG along with all the development and confidence he built.

Besides, why moat about a single draft pick not being two spots higher when we went into the year with only potential pieces and came out with an All-Star and an All-Rookie.
 
Lets pretend the finnisher doesnt play for us. look at our team without him start from there make the team really good and Finisher puts us over the top
 
He won't come unprepared to next season. Finland made it to the World Cup, and you can bet your butt Lauri will be there, and he will be there for the national team training camp and training matches. Even if he for some reason wouldn't want to be there (which would be crazy, as he has several times mentioned playing for the national team is what he really wants to do (ie what all the European NBA players say, no matter if they are called Giannis, Luka, Nikola, Lauri, etc), the Army will order him to go.

Also, being in the Army he will not be able to follow the Luka diet of "a barrel of beer and eight quarter pounders with extra chees per day", so the danger of Lauri becoming overweight and lazy during summer is zero.
 
And he'll probably have a more than a few 18yo b-ballers from the Army Sports School's intake willing to do whatever Lauri asks of them in the gym.
Actually checked and there are 9 other basketballers in the April group. They'll get some good 5-on-5s with that group I'm sure. All the other guys are 6'5" - 6'8" so maybe Kessler could do a few weeks in the Finnish army as well to bring in a bigger body :D
 
Seems extremely not ideal to me. Him being full time military for six months and then coming back to an already active NBA season with no preparation or conditioning sounds rough.


We shoulda sent him away to do this in the middle of the season after it was obvious he was awesome and ****ing up the tank after 10 games or so. I wanted to be all in next season. Our best guy doing no off season prep at all is not great.

Don't love this.

He gonna be playing hella basketball in the military bruh
 
The dunks video was awesome. Btw, why dont we wear the purple jerseys more? Wtf
For some reason Ryan likes the black and yellow. I have no ****ing clue why, he just does. They are objectively the worst jerseys we have ever had, and that even includes the baby blue monstrosities we had during the Boozer/DWill era. Ugh. I really hope he gets the black and yellow thing out of his system so we can go back to some of the better jerseys we have had, like the dark mode jerseys, those were the best. I want a dark mode Lauri and Kessler jersey, but I refuse to put any money into a black and yellow POS.
 
For some reason Ryan likes the black and yellow. I have no ****ing clue why, he just does. They are objectively the worst jerseys we have ever had, and that even includes the baby blue monstrosities we had during the Boozer/DWill era. Ugh. I really hope he gets the black and yellow thing out of his system so we can go back to some of the better jerseys we have had, like the dark mode jerseys, those were the best. I want a dark mode Lauri and Kessler jersey, but I refuse to put any money into a black and yellow POS.

Only ones worse were the ones with copper included in the color scheme. Shudder
 
For those who are maybe concerned on Lauri's military training. Finnish basketball coaching leader Henrik Dettmann even publicly reminded https://www.hs.fi/urheilu/art-2000009506782.html the Army that biggest risk for Lauri's training is lack of enough rest. Also, commanding officer of the unit was very clear in his statement that they know what kind of specimen is coming into the system.

There is very little chance that Finnish Defence Force would **** this up as its PR thing on so many levels. If being perfectly honest.
 
Some information on Army time in the Finnish Sport school.

There are two dates when a conscript can enter service in Sports School, either 17th of April or 3rd of July. For example, if a conscript is ordered to enter service on April 17th and doesn't show up, then the person is considered to be either a fugitive or AWOL. A conscript can ask for the order be delayed to next year, if he has a valid reason. For example, Lauri has asked for delay several years in row now, and it was always given.

The service time is either 165 days or 347 days (for those recieving NCO or reserve-officer training). Weekend- and other leaves granted (for example, performing exceptionally well in physical-tests (Cooper-test, swimming-test, etc) or shooting (gaining the golden marksman marker) are rewarded with extra leave; I would be so bold to claim Lauri is at least going to get the extra leave from the Cooper-test) to the conscript are included in the service time. I would bet Lauri intends to only serve 165 days

The first four weeks of Army time is the rookie period, the orientation phase. During that period conscripts learn the very basics of Army life; how to dress, how to salute, the military ranks, how to march, how to handle the personal weapon, and also the physical, mental and optical tests (only a small percentage of humans have the enhanced depth-vision required for Forward Observer duties). This is often the most stressful phase for conscripts as it is (especially for modern western people) so alien thing to live by a strict code; for professional athletes the time is pretty much normal life (except the uniforms and guns). Those serving in sports-school this is the period when there is the least possibilities to follow their personal training program (and I have understood professional athletes serving take these four weeks pretty much as a vacation), usually only about 2 hours per day.

After the four week orientation phase the branch of service training begins. For Sports school conscripts this means the personal sport training is upped to 8 hours per day (for example, the basketball athletes do all the normal basketball practices they would do anyway, in addition to 1-on-1, 3-on-3 and 5-on-5 scrimmages; this year there are in all 10 basketball players in Sports-school, which is way more than normal), and in addition the tactical training required in recon. Also all the evenings and weekends (minus a couple weekends spent in camping training in the woods) are free for the athlete to follow their personal programs or to rest (what ever they choose).

If the athlete is an international level athlete (like for example Lauri is), the conscript can be ordered to take part for up to 8 weeks in the sports training camp organised by the national Olympic committee (for individual sports athletes, like javelin throwers or ski-jumpers etc) or by the national team (for team sports athletes, like basketball players). In addition to that, an athlete can be ordered for up to 45 days to take part in sports events outside the borders of Finland (for example, if there would happen to World Cup in basketball in August-September, an international level basketball player like Lauri would be ordered to take part).

In short, Lauri probably is going to spend about 50 days of his 165 days service time at the garrison, because weekend- and other leaves plus the time commanded to spend with the national basketball team add up to about 110 days. Of those 50 days will be rather light physical service the first four weeks (for a professional athlete that is; for an average joe not that much into sports the first four weeks usually is the toughest time), and the remaining ~25 days (aka ~5 weeks) he will be spending following his personal training program (in addition to the scrimmages with the other basketball players doing their army time).

As far as I can see it, the main concern for Lauri isn't that he would come out of the summer out shape, but that he might be too keen to take part in all the possibilities. He has to remember to rest and take it easy at times too :)
 
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I don't know where to add this, maybe it should be in like a report card thread or something, but it would be great if Lauri worked on his hero ball while he's learning to kill Russians. It seems like most of his stuff comes off of 2 or fewer dribbles, generally, and I think it's within the range of his existing skillset to develop (comfort with) a pull-up 3. I also think he's underutilized in the post with his size and the abundant opportunities to attack a switch there.

Right now, Lauri's ceiling is the Jazz's ceiling. If he can raise his ceiling by adding some dimension, he raises the team's. It would probably ding his elite efficiency but winning in the playoffs so often devolves into who can hit the hardest shots when the offenses are scouted and slowed down.
 
I don't know where to add this, maybe it should be in like a report card thread or something, but it would be great if Lauri worked on his hero ball while he's learning to kill Russians. It seems like most of his stuff comes off of 2 or fewer dribbles, generally, and I think it's within the range of his existing skillset to develop (comfort with) a pull-up 3. I also think he's underutilized in the post with his size and the abundant opportunities to attack a switch there.

Good thing is he has some sort of base for a pull-up 3. He made few of them this season. He also said he is going to have ball handling as one his main things to focus on this off-season. I think we are going to see aome increase of pull-up shots - both threes and mid-range.
 
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