Cavs: 2 areas of Lauri Markkanen’s game that will be crucial

Lauri Markkanen was recently acquired by the Cleveland Cavaliers via sign-and-trade from the Chicago Bulls last week, and the former restricted free agent was inked to a four-year, $67 million deal. The last year of that contract is guaranteed for only $6, not $18 million, for context.

For the Cavaliers, even with their big man situation, and the likes of the recently re-signed Jarrett Allen and #3 pick Evan Mobley, most notably, in the fold, Markkanen should still have a big role.

I’d anticipate him to come off the bench more often than not for next season, and while we’ll have to see looking onward, he’ll still get a ton of minutes, seemingly at the 4/5 and we could see all three on the floor together at times. That’s with Mobley’s fluidity on the defensive end of the floor, to go with his passing and guard-like skill set on the offensive end.

In a general sense in relation to Markkanen, he’ll be a significant floor spacing presence, and should be a kickout option often for the likes of Darius Garland, Collin Sexton and Ricky Rubio on the perimeter. Markkanen has proven himself to be a heck of a catch-and-shoot threat, and he knocked in 40.2 percent of his 5.8 three-point attempts per game last season with Chicago.

It’s easy to see why Cavaliers general manager Koby Altman and company went after Markkanen, even with them needing to ship out Larry Nance Jr. to Portland, in particular.

With Lauri though, two points of emphasis, to me, jump out that should be key in the near future for Cleveland.

Getting that out there, we’ll dive into those two here for Markkanen for the Cavs.

The first has to do with his shooting.