Since he’s been back from a near-three-week absence because of the NBA’s COVID-19 health and safety protocols, Lauri Markkanen has been finding his groove for the Cleveland Cavaliers. Markkanen didn’t get off to a fast start early on prior to heading into protocols, aside from three games really directly before heading into them, but he’s starting to become much more comfortable.
Markkanen has had an adjustment to make too, as he’s been playing offensively as Cleveland’s de facto 3 often with Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen at the 4/5 with him, and Markkanen has not played the 3 in a very long time.
That was reportedly prior to his notable growthspurt, and even before his role would be clear before the season, I didn’t think it’d be surprising to see Markkanen potentially start the season slow, given his new situation and set of teammates. He was acquired this offseason via sign-and-trade from the Chicago Bulls.
As we alluded to earlier though, Markkanen has looked much more comfortable since returning from protocols, and in his last 10 games, has hit 39.1 percent from three-point range on 6.4 attempts per game. He has had 13.4 points per outing in that span, which has been fine, and his overall impact as a floor spacer, driver off of hard closeouts and interior finisher has made a difference for a surging Wine and Gold squad.
One area of his game has jumped out since he’s appeared more in-rhythm, too, however, and that’s in early offense/in secondary transition.
Cavs: Markkanen has been silently lethal in transition.
With the Bulls and heading into the season, I thought Markkanen’s transition scoring was something that was a bit overlooked, but it’s been nice to see him help the Cavaliers in that way in recent weeks.
We know that Markkanen is one of the Cavaliers’ best shooting threats, and he’s been effective moving without the ball as a cutter and even for a 7-footer, he’s consistently found space in transition as a trailing shooter, which leads to good looks and in-rhythm shots.
Markkanen has hit 42.4 percent from three in his last six games, and that’s part of the reasoning for it.
And overall in the transition scoring sense, he’s had an effective field goal shooting clip of 68.0 percent, on a frequency of 18.7 percent, per Synergy Sports. He’s placed in the 89th percentile this season in transition scoring, also per Synergy, for further context.
It’s been great to see Markkanen hustling down the floor, and getting to spots on the wing, which has often led to dishes from Darius Garland and Ricky Rubio, leading to quality early offense for Cleveland in secondary break situations. That’s led to him getting to the corners, where at times it seems those are essentially lay-ups for him if he’s on, and as we also touched on, Markkanen’s heady cutting has led some dunks for him filling lanes.
In addition, on the secondary break, Markkanen’s shooting reputation, combined with Jarrett Allen or, when he’s in there, Isaac Okoro, getting down the floor has at times has led to defenders having to eventually close out by launching at Markkanen, which has helped him get occasional drives.
And in those types of sequences, Lauri far more often than not finishes very well on those plays, and we’ve even seen him throw those down with authority, or generate some And-1 opportunities, albeit not always via dunks.
To drive it home, it’s been good to see Markkanen help the Cavaliers out in early offense/secondary break situations, where his urgency has helped create quality looks for himself on the move, where he’s been silently lethal throughout games. The drives and early seal plays have been a welcomed sight as well.
hopefully this continues from the 24-year-old, who Cleveland needs to be produce, particularly with Mobley reportedly entering COVID-19 health and safety protocols on Saturday.