Cavs Player Grades: Lauri Markkanen does fine in new situation

Markkanen’s overall play this season

It was a season with some ups and downs for Markkanen, as has again been in-line with his career through five seasons. Some of that has had to do with injuries, however, over the course of his time with the Bulls, especially.

With the Cavaliers, he did close the year strong, but it’s fair to question whether or not the 3-big starting lineup, when the team was healthy, is sustainable another season, if not longer. Markkanen did seem out of place at times, and defensively, there’s still some question marks.

On the plus side, Markkanen in his first season in a new situation did seem to find his footing as the year wore on leading into the ankle sprain, and there were a couple of very promising stretches prior to that from him offensively.

I understand he did have more success sans Allen in the closing stretch of the season, with 16.6 points per game in his last 15 regular season games, and him hitting 38.2 percent of his threes, but there’s reason for optimism for next year for Markkanen’s outlook.

And generally, Lauri having a net rating of 3.9 this season with the Cavs, in a new situation, was noteworthy.

Time will tell if he can be a long term starter for Cleveland, and if he’ll be worth the four-year, $67.5 million deal they signed him to last offseason, albeit with the fourth year guaranteed for only $6 million. But he’s still not quite 25, and this season, I thought he did fine.

Markkanen’s 2021-22 overall grade: B

Hopefully we can see Markkanen further acclimated with Cleveland in 2022-23.