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Lauri Markkanen Hype & Appreciation Thread

Assisted/unassisted is so dumb with seven footers as most of them have high assisted rate. Lauri also is so good with off-ball movement he gets easier looks than some other bigs. If he can cut for a good look and score off the assist its as good or sometimes even better than throwing it into post and back up and pound the ball for seconds. Off ball cuts needs good timing and is not as simple it looks like.

BTW AD has 63% of his 2's assisted. It is more than Lauri.

EDIT: 31/31 AD's threes are assisted. His overall unassisted rate is under 64 bc he does not take lot of threes. Then some know-it-alls around the league make their predictions of Lauri All-star chances based on some god damn assisted-rate. Best three is assisted three whether it is a guard taking them or a big. Lauri being elite from downtown increases his assisted-rate. I bet there is no ig who is under 80% with assisted threes and there is no need for that.
 
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As you both said, it is really dumb to look at assisted rate. That of course stems from thinking that creating your shot = dribble / drive / iso post.

Lauri does create his shots, most of them. By constantly cutting, curling, popping, rolling. And by a) making it easy to pass to him in those situations and b) executing in such a way that when he gets the ball, he's ready to score,

There are very few possessions when Lauri scores by just standing in the corner the whole time and waits for the ball that might come to him.
 
Obviously creating your own shot is not the be-all, end-all. Lauri's efficiency has been absolutely elite this season - the ability to put up a lot of points in the flow of the game, without needing a ton of touches or having to dominate possessions, is pretty much the holy grail of regular season NBA basketball. When you have a 67 TS% and average 7 3PA's per game, you're pretty much a walking bucket.

BUT.

It changes in the playoffs. True stars are made in crunch time, when there IS no flow of the game, and you're forced to work within the last five seconds on the shot clock all the time, against a set defense. Passing lanes dry up, favorable matchups are hard to find and all you flaws are magnified.

I'm not a fan of hero ball, but a star has to be able to bend the game to his will now that then. To take over. That's just how it is. Reggie Miller was always a tier below the other superstars of his era because he needed complicated stagger screen actions to get open. When he DID get open, he was lethal. But he depended on his teammates to get him there. The legendary 4th quarter against the Knicks is a great example. The guy essentially functions as a spot up shooter:


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7nEXYAvU2Y

Personally, I love Lauri's game, efficiency and organic way of scoring. But I won't be shocked if he doesn't make it into the AS game. His stats are great, but at this point of his career he's still lacking that star quality - the ability to put the team on his back when 100% of the defense's attention is on him.
 
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HermanG said:
That bolded part is such a dumb knock. NBA analysts and fans praising guys who dribble on the perimeter long enough to negate assists is just inherently stupid. "Oh, but they create their own buckets". Well, they also take away any edge in field balance the offense may have had due to ball movement and allow defenses to get set.

Dirk Nowitzki who Lauri has always been compared to as his maximum upside and who Lauri has studied a lot... had 57.0% of his 2s and 94.7% of his 3s assisted for his career. In their championship year in 2010-11 he had 59.0% and 97.0% assisted. And the reason is exactly the same. Neither player dribbles the ball much once they get it. They are very decisive with the ball.

Also tracking stats dont exists from 2010-11, but its easy to see from 2013-14 that Dirk has very similar average touch duration numbers (1.83 vs Lauri 2.19). Dirk actually dribbled even less than Lauri does.
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Sure Dirk had a lot of assisted baskets, particularly in the reg season. It made sense - team defenses weren't really geared to stop big shooters in his era like they are today. When you watch his old games, it's shocking how he's not really being denied the ball even in high stakes situations. And once he got it, nobody could bother his shot. Legit 7 footer, high release point, fading away.

But the shooting alone didn't make Dirk one of the best ever. He would also KILL you going 1-on-1 from the high post when he had to, against a totally set & prepared defense and zero spacing. He simply imposed his will and had a surprising bag of tricks down there.

That's what Lauri is lacking.
 
Tremendous Upside said:
Sure Dirk had a lot of assisted baskets, particularly in the reg season. It made sense - team defenses weren't really geared to stop big shooters in his era like they are today. When you watch his old games, it's shocking how he's not really being denied the ball even in high stakes situations. And once he got it, nobody could bother his shot. Legit 7 footer, high release point, fading away.

But the shooting alone didn't make Dirk one of the best ever. He would also KILL you going 1-on-1 from the high post when he had to, against a totally set & prepared defense and zero spacing. He simply imposed his will and had a surprising bag of tricks down there.

That's what Lauri is lacking.
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Granted. I think he's still deserving of an all-star nod.
 
Tremendous Upside said:
Sure Dirk had a lot of assisted baskets, particularly in the reg season. It made sense - team defenses weren't really geared to stop big shooters in his era like they are today. When you watch his old games, it's shocking how he's not really being denied the ball even in high stakes situations. And once he got it, nobody could bother his shot. Legit 7 footer, high release point, fading away.

But the shooting alone didn't make Dirk one of the best ever. He would also KILL you going 1-on-1 from the high post when he had to, against a totally set & prepared defense and zero spacing. He simply imposed his will and had a surprising bag of tricks down there.

That's what Lauri is lacking.
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I know the post up game is a big difference between the two. Even in the regular season, Dirk was posting up a lot every game. Early season I called for more post ups for Lauri for that very reason but Hardy rarely calls them. I think it has to do with Vando and Kessler not being shooting threats so Lauri is easy to double on the post without giving up high percentage plays. I do think he should have a good post play repertoire, based on the way he moves with the ball in other parts of the court.

I would still prefer Lauri posting up rather than JC driving to high post... especially since JC usually refuses to kick out even if its the obvious high % play.
 
Shad said:
Now give us Clarkson's and Beasley's.
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Omg I had to check. Beasley actually has 9.2 less points with only 0.2 less FGA per game.

Clarkson 21.9 PPG at 43/34/83, TS 54.7%
Beasley 16.1 PPG at 40/35/69, TS 53.7%

Btw, Sexton 17.0 PPG at 53/54/90, TS 68.3%

Ratings:
Sexton offense 122.1 defense 110.8 = +11.3
Markkanen 119.9 and 111.8 = +8.1
Beasley 113.0 and 112.4 = +0.6
Clarkson 116.2 and 117.9 = -1.7
 
Tremendous Upside said:
Obviously creating your own shot is not the be-all, end-all. Lauri's efficiency has been absolutely elite this season - the ability to put up a lot of points in the flow of the game, without needing a ton of touches or having to dominate possessions, is pretty much the holy grail of regular season NBA basketball. When you have a 67 TS% and average 7 3PA's per game, you're pretty much a walking bucket.

BUT.

It changes in the playoffs. True stars are made in crunch time, when there IS no flow of the game, and you're forced to work within the last five seconds on the shot clock all the time, against a set defense. Passing lanes dry up, favorable matchups are hard to find and all you flaws are magnified.

I'm not a fan of hero ball, but a star has to be able to bend the game to his will now that then. To take over. That's just how it is. Reggie Miller was always a tier below the other superstars of his era because he needed complicated stagger screen actions to get open. When he DID get open, he was lethal. But he depended on his teammates to get him there. The legendary 4th quarter against the Knicks is a great example. The guy essentially functions as a spot up shooter:


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7nEXYAvU2Y

Personally, I love Lauri's game, efficiency and organic way of scoring. But I won't be shocked if he doesn't make it into the AS game. His stats are great, but at this point of his career he's still lacking that star quality - the ability to put the team on his back when 100% of the defense's attention is on him.
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Good post.
Though I feel like Lauri should make the all star game. The rest of your post is spot on. I love how you called his efficiency without needing touches the holy grail. You are right. Its amazing. But you are also right about a star being made in crunch time when there is no flow and the player just has to do it all themselves. We love to hate hero ball but often times hero ball is exactly what you need in crunch time of a playoff game. Not sure Lauri has the ability to play hero ball efficiently.
 
fishonjazz said:
Good post.
Though I feel like Lauri should make the all star game. The rest of your post is spot on. I love how you called his efficiency without needing touches the holy grail. You are right. Its amazing. But you are also right about a star being made in crunch time when there is no flow and the player just has to do it all themselves. We love to hate hero ball but often times hero ball is exactly what you need in crunch time of a playoff game. Not sure Lauri has the ability to play hero ball efficiently.
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I don't know. If you have a high level point guard like Conley then Lauri's game is fantastic in the playoffs. Karl and John worked well together. But yeah that approach is unusual, generally hero ball is the easiest way to go if you are stopped because it is harder to play team ball. Lauri would also be even better if there was an option on the team that was on or near his level so he wouldn't be keyed onto during the playoffs.
 
whatthe said:
I don't know. If you have a high level point guard like Conley then Lauri's game is fantastic in the playoffs. Karl and John worked well together. But yeah that approach is unusual, generally hero ball is the easiest way to go if you are stopped because it is harder to play team ball. Lauri would also be even better if there was an option on the team that was on or near his level so he wouldn't be keyed onto during the playoffs.
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I don't know if Conley can still play high level come playoff time. He was awful last year vs Dallas. He scored 0, 4 , 6, 11 points in those games. He had 2 games with just 3 assist, 1 with 4. He registered 13 turnovers and went 5/25 from 3 the whole series. Not optimistic tbh
 
Agent#00 said:
I don't know if Conley can still play high level come playoff time. He was awful last year vs Dallas. He scored 0, 4 , 6, 11 points in those games. He had 2 games with just 3 assist, 1 with 4. He registered 13 turnovers and went 5/25 from 3 the whole series. Not optimistic tbh
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Good point. I hope NAW can pick it up or the Jazz will fizzle out without Conley.
 
Lauri is either on a tear or he is figuring out how to output AS numbers.

Since his sick leave (last 8 games)
26.5 PPG at 16.1 FGA and 47.1 touches
Even his worst point total in that stretch (18 against the Bucks) was effective (7/12 from the field and 3/5 from 3).

Last 4 games (granted, not the toughest stretch):
30.0 PPG at 18.5 FGA and 50.3 touches

Btw his points per touch number is also #1 in the league at 0.481 (min 5 PPG). He is also #1 in points per elbow touches (min 5 PPG and 1 elbow touch per game) and his touch duration and effectiveness numbers are very similar to one Joel Embiid. Also better numbers in elbow, post and paint touches... but first two are with a significantly lower volume so hard to read into that.
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Im starting to think his upside is at least high end #2. His spacing is elite, his movement off the ball is elite and he not only can but is likely to go off if you dont glue a good defender on him. He has also improved his defense this year.
 
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