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Eurobasket 2025

KqWIN said:
Ausar is significantly better at the moment and it would take a lot for Bilal to get there.
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Really? What it is that he does so much better?

His scoring is mostly rim running or garbage collection. He is in a much better situation with better players/coach so he gets to play the glue guy role and thus may look better in that context.. but I dont see much more than high level role player there.
 
HermanG said:
Really? What it is that he does so much better?

His scoring is mostly rim running or garbage collection. He is in a much better situation with better players/coach so he gets to play the glue guy role and thus may look better in that context.. but I dont see much more than high level role player there.
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Everything except for shooting. He is a high level role player, Bilal could feasibly get there in time but he isn't close to Ausar at the moment.
 
Does Turkey has any hazily naturalized players or are all the bitch teams with naturalized player exited the tournament now? Slovenia has one too, but due injury couldn't participate (plus their EuroBasket win in 2017 is invalid in my mind due Anthony Randolph participance)
 
Unfortunately it looks like Lauri is about 4th best NBA player on field, Wagner, Schröder and Theis has been better than Lauri in today's game.
 
Considering the importance of this game, this is the worst game Lauri has ever played

Bricking shots, slow in defense, effs up good looks by taking steps. Absolutely horrific.

It might be a turning point here. If Lauri don't perform in Team Finland, it's super worrying. Has two years of tanking destroyed the flame and/or confidence? If so, things look bleak, both to jazz and to my beloved team Finland.
 
We all knew that Finland is not getting past Germany. There is still the game for the bronze and Greece is beatable if Lauri has a great game.

Maybe the today's game will fuel him. Lauri still has a chance to lead Finland to their first basketball medal ever and create a lasting legacy.
 
Step-Back Lauri said:
Considering the importance of this game, this is the worst game Lauri has ever played

Bricking shots, slow in defense, effs up good looks by taking steps. Absolutely horrific.

It might be a turning point here. If Lauri don't perform in Team Finland, it's super worrying. Has two years of tanking destroyed the flame and/or confidence? If so, things look bleak, both to jazz and to my beloved team Finland.
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Imo the worst part was his decissionmaking. He didnt attack/hunt the correct matchups and took unnecessarily difficult shots and drives.

It was almost as if he tried to put the team on his back but couldnt. Thing is... I dont think he needed to.
 
HermanG said:
Imo the worst part was his decissionmaking. He didnt attack/hunt the correct matchups and took unnecessarily difficult shots and drives.

It was almost as if he tried to put the team on his back but couldnt. Thing is... I dont think he needed to.
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Yeah, he absolutely didn't need to. Their best run was on third quarter when Lauri was resting. Of course first five minutes were fine with him, before Germany got their things together and picked apart any defensive schemes we had. Schröder is one smart cookie adapting to defensive plans
 
I thought Lauri played quite well against Germany. He received intense defensive pressure throughout the game and had to take tough shots. Tomorrow, he'll be facing Giannis, who didn’t have a good game (12 pts, 5 TOs, –30) against Turkey. Like Lauri, he was guarded heavily
 
underdog said:
I thought Lauri played quite well against Germany. He received intense defensive pressure throughout the game and had to take tough shots. Tomorrow, he'll be facing Giannis, who didn’t have a good game (12 pts, 5 TOs, –30) against Turkey. Like Lauri, he was guarded heavily
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But that comes with the territory of being a star and an offensive leader of your team. And no, other stars, despite facing similarly intense defensive pressure, managed to be more efficient throughout the tournament. You can look at the top 20 scorers of EuroBasket 2025 and try to find a player with lower FG% then Lauri (hint: you will not). And, if you exclude the first two games, when Lauri was efficient against really, really bad teams his stats for the rest of the EuroBasket become quite bad: 19.7 PPG on 39% FG and 24% 3PT FG.

It is still great for Finland, but the problem for the Jazz fans is that the NBA is still trying to figure out if Lauri can be a star offensive player on a good team (playing against good defenses in meaningful games). And his EuroBasket stats are one more argument that Markkanen is rather an elite role player who can thrive playing alongside true offensive stars. And it would be very, very hard to find suitors for an elite role player on a max contract.

But I still expect a great performance from Lauri against Greece.
 
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