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

#1: Movement shooting

Markkanen will of course get a boatload of catch-and-shoot looks moving forward. For a 7-footer, he has a quick release and his mechanics make shot contests toward him not that meaningful, or at least it seems that way.

He is of course a polished spot-up shooter that should help open up gaps more for Cleveland’s slashers, and that in itself I don’t discount, and with Kevin Love’s injury concerns, Markkanen could be Cleveland’s best pure shooter moving forward. That’s not knocking Garland, for instance, but Markkanen will likely get far more catch-and-shoot opportunities.

Lauri in the past two seasons, really, showed that he’s a quality movement shooter too, though, and he could very well end up being the Cavs’ go-to off-screen shooting presence in his minutes.

Firing off pindowns, and coming around staggers, and getting corner triples from potentially Jarrett Allen/Evan Mobley hammer screens could lead to plenty of success for Markkanen when he’s out there. Although the volume wasn’t high necessarily in what was designated as off-screen situations (11.4 percent), Markkanen did place in the 78th percentile in those scoring scenarios last season, per Synergy Sports.

Just his presence alone as a movement shooter should help open up opportunities for other Cavs, but after what he’s shown the past two seasons, I’d expect him to get his share of looks in those situations.

And for what it’s worth, him getting spot-ups after relocation in mid-clock fits into that movement mold too, anyway. Last season, he placed in the 81st percentile in spot-ups on a frequency of 37.6 percent, to that point, per Synergy.

Secondly, we’ll examine how Markkanen has a somewhat underrated transition skill set.