Cavs’ Lauri Markkanen is in really bad slump from three

I wasn’t thrilled initially when the Cleveland Cavaliers had decided to roll with Lauri Markkanen as a de facto 3, at least offensively, with Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen with him as starters.

Those three have had improved chemistry as the season has progressed, though, following Markkanen’s COVID-19 health and safety protocols absence in a few weeks in November, and to some degree, Markkanen has been better than expected on defense. That’s been somewhat contingent on the help around him individually, but his team defense I give him credit for.

Nonetheless, even with Markkanen needing to adjust to playing often with two other bigs, it is fair to say that his catch-and-shoot play has up-and-down. Currently, Markkanen’s three-point shooting hit rate this season has been a career-low 30.8 percent on 6.0 attempts per outing.

There have been a number of nice games in that realm for him when Markkanen has been more settled in, and in the earlier part of December/late November, he seemed to be getting going. In an eight-game stretch from Nov. 27-Dec. 10, Markkanen connected on 43.9 percent of his deep attempts, and had 15.9 points per outing.

That said, he’s typically been cold, and honestly, ice cold from deep since.

In Markkanen’s last 10 games, he’s hit just 22.2 percent from three, and his overall production has dipped to 11.4 points per outing. The dude is slumping hard from three.

There’s no way to sugarcoat it as a Cavs fan, Markkanen is in a bad slump from the outside.

Markkanen was better getting to his spots in Cleveland’s win over the Indiana Pacers on Sunday to snap the Cavs’ three-game losing streak, and it has been nice to see him get some quality looks when getting smaller defenders on him inside. He was 5-of-12 overall in that game, finishing with 12 points and six rebounds.

Perhaps we’ll see the Cavaliers get him going from off-ball screens more to get to the foul line, and/or get favorable matchups with the threat of Jarrett Allen over-the-top, and Markkanen having less attention on the weak side. I’m not discounting that from Lauri.

However, objectively, the Cavaliers need him to be on more from deep looking onward, the way he’s more than capable of, including via relocation/off movement. We touched on Markkanen’s slump over these past 9/10 games, which has been somewhat concerning, and I’m not absolving him of several misses on wide-open catch-and-shoot looks after ball-swings or kickouts.

I am optimistic that, while there’s going to be some streakiness over stretches of games for Markkanen, as there inherently is with stretch bigs, he can turn things around in coming games and seemingly on the Cavs’ six-game road trip. He’s had a role change this season with Cleveland after his first four years with the Chicago Bulls, too, for context.

Additionally, Cleveland in recent games not having distributors like Garland, who’s been in COVID-19 protocols, and Ricky Rubio (who is unfortunately out for the season) for a few games has potentially affected Markkanen a bit. Cavs head coach J.B. Bickerstaff also essentially mentioned how that’s not aided the stretch big on Sunday prior to Cleveland’s win over Indiana, via Evan Dammarell of Fear The Sword and Right Down Euclid, too.

In any case, the wide-open misses at times throughout stretches of games from Markkanen need to be cleaned up to some degree, and I’d imagine in coming weeks, they very well can be.

As we previously alluded to, the 24-year-old did have a great stretch on catch-and-shoots from distance prior to this recent slump, and hopefully with Rajon Rondo in the mix now, and when Garland’s back, we’ll see Lauri back in a nice rhythm. And I don’t gloss over his solid cuts and work to get seals in semi-transition.

It’d just really be meaningful for him to get out of this recent shooting slump from the perimeter, coupled with the interior finishing. That’d make opponents pay more for doubles on Mobley, Allen and at times Kevin Love.

Markkanen I do think will be fine, but given the shooting capabilities he has, the dude’s got to get out of this if he’s going to warrant the minutes he’s getting. That needs to change this week ahead for the 7-footer, and during Cleveland’s upcoming road trip out West.