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.
#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.
#2: The transition game
Secondly, Markkanen is a player that could give Cleveland a different element in the transition game.
With the 24-year-old’s deep range, I’d expect him to be a heck of a trailing threat, where he was previously a great target in that realm for the likes of Coby White, Zach LaVine and Tomas Satoransky with Chicago.
Granted, Love is a notable player in that way when he’s healthy for the Cavs and Garland/Sexton, but these days and after last season, that’s a question mark.
And while Markkanen has had his own share of injuries in recent seasons, I wouldn’t anticipate that to be nearly Love-esque from here.
Plus, the 24-year-old, when healthy, should be an outstanding stretch big to go to for early clock secondary transition trailing looks. So that comes to mind, for one.
Along with that, Markkanen has demonstrated the ability to put the ball on the deck in transition to counter closeouts, and on run-outs. With his length and a bit underappreciated handle in secondary break opportunities, that should lead to money looks for him and the squad.
I’d expect that as Markkanen becomes more comfortable alongside Rubio, Sexton and say, Evan Mobley, who is an awesome passing big, he should be able to time up his cuts going toward the rim to counter his transition deep looks, too.
And in the open floor, even with him being more so a stretch big, he has shown he can finish through contact with dunks after straight-line drives and/or when running at times rim-to-rim, which should give Cleveland energy. So I’d look for that after defensive rebounds/deflections as well.
He seemed to be more comfortable in recent seasons in the transition game, and I’d imagine we should see more of his growth there in coming years, as he settles in with the Cavs.