Cavs: 3 reasons why the Lauri Markkanen deal was a good idea

Reason 2: Lauri Markkanen brings a unique aspect to the Cavaliers’ offense

For years, the Cavaliers have tried to make Kevin Love playing at the center position work as his shooting from that position had helped to open up the offense for guys like LeBron James, Kyrie Irving, Collin Sexton, and Darius Garland, among others. The downfall was that this isn’t a position that Love liked, stating that he had lost weight to better be suited as a modern-day power forward. There was also a loss of height and interior presence due to that move.

Now with Markkanen the Cavaliers add a floor-spacing seven-footer while not sacrificing an interior presence. Being 7-foot, 240 pounds with his shooting abilities, Lauri should be a better fit at center than Love was. Though the Cavs will still have to sacrifice rebounding and defense with Lauri at center minutes, his solid frame should make for a better pick-and-pop/pick-and-roll threat than Love.

With his perimeter-oriented play, this also allows for more creative front courts from the coaching staff as Markkanen-Mobley and Markkanen-Allen are both frontcourts that should be effective in spurts depending on opponent personnel.

7-foot floor spacers are rare in this league and the Cavaliers have the best one in that aspect as according to NBA.com, of all seven-footers, Markkanen shot the highest percentage from three last season at 40.2% while attempting the second-most threes per game, just 0.2 attempts behind Kristaps Porzingis.