Cavs: Should we be concerned about Lauri Markkanen?

The fact that the Cleveland Cavaliers are legitimately starting offseason sign-and-trade acquisition Lauri Markkanen at the 3 is still sinking in for me. He was reportedly a player that had experience at small forward before earlier on in his basketball career, but it’s not something that he was seen doing in his first four seasons with the Chicago Bulls.

Now, Cavaliers head coach J.B. Bickerstaff and co. did deploy Markkanen at the 3 in some real stretches in preseason, and the Cavs did have success there. Defensively, Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen in extended stretches together on the floor can help the likes of Markkanen, Collin Sexton and others, too. Mobley, who has been formally playing the 3 more to that point, has had an outstanding start to the season defensively as well, and he’s only going to get better and better with more experience.

Nonetheless, it is still an adjustment, one would think at the NBA level, for Markkanen, who has in terms of offensively, been playing the 3 often. He’s still been matched up on 3s a fair amount, too, even if formally it’s been considered he’s mostly played at the 4.

That’s only natural, regarding the adjustment, and even prior to Markkanen beginning the season as a starter, regardless of position and me thinking he’d be a bench go-to guy of sorts, I did still expect Markkanen to start a bit slow with the Cavs.

Thus far through four games Markkanen has averages of 11.8 points on 41.7 percent true shooting, though. Yikes. The triples have not been falling for the Finland-native just yet, most notably, as he’s hit just 7-of-26 (a 26.9 percent clip) from downtown to begin his tenure with the Wine and Gold.

So, it’s fair to ask. Should Cavs fans be concerned about Markkanen?

Markkanen hasn’t been able to get it going thus far for Cleveland, as evidenced by the aforementioned shooting splits, particularly from downtown. The role adjustment has to be factored in, however.

But in the past two games in wins against the Atlanta Hawks and Denver Nuggets, he has seemed to have more opportunities for open looks. It hasn’t led to much success, as Markkanen’s only been 3-of-14 from three.

That said, I don’t think fans should be too concerned, as with the shooter Markkanen is, and with how he knocked in 40.2 percent from three last season with Chicago, even with a decline overall in production, I think he’ll be fine.

A few triples have been timely ones from the Finland native, though, and it was encouraging to see him splash one off movement after giving Allen a quality kickout target in the corner. The off-movement looks will start going down with Markkanen in coming games more regularly, too, I believe.

It will still take some time for him to get more used to playing off of Allen, Mobley and Collin Sexton among others, but there have been some good signs involving him and Mobley, and on the interior, especially. Sexton has shown continued growth, particularly as a secondary playmaking presence, so far this season, and Mobley and Markkanen have appeared to have grown with their chemistry.

Markkanen is an adept cutter, which I’d expect we’ll see more of from here, and with Mobley’s great passing timing and vision, even more so for a big, his two-man game with Markkanen will only get better.

That sort of dime above from Mobley was a great sign for Markkanen, in terms of the off-ball sense for the latter, and Mobley has gotten some quality high-low passes to Markkanen, when he’s gotten low seals at times, too. That will lead to some And-1 opportunities game-to-game, I believe, and on another positive note, Markkanen has helped the Cavs in transition some, which can continue hopefully.

We did see him make plays at the rim as a play finisher and sound cutter in transition in preseason, and while I’m not going to say he won’t get beat at times on the other end, his team defensive feel has helped Cleveland’s open floor game some. He’s started to utilize his length more off-ball, and is beginning to seem more comfortable in knowing where the help for him is coming from, and to the last point, he had an impressive four steals in that win at Denver.

This jam from the jump on Nikola Jokic helped set the “tone early” in that one, too, as the Cavs expressed below, and could maybe help lead to some more momentum for Markkanen in coming games.

Overall, even with the shooting struggles to start the year, Markkanen has been affecting games in other ways, including some as a rotator leading to blocks, as a cutter and at times on the offensive glass.

So, circling back, though, given that Markkanen has shown he has deep range in prior seasons, both via ball-swings/spot-ups and with his movement shooting abilities, I don’t feel fans should be concerned, honestly.

There will be some ups and downs in the earlier portion of the season here, but he’ll be just fine I think.