#2: Lauri Markkanen
I discussed in a previous article that a player like forward Dean Wade should be given a bigger role next season.
Even though there was a lot of hype surrounding the Finnish forward that the Cavs acquired in a sign-and-trade last offseason, Lauri Markkanen still had his moments of playing horrible basketball especially defensively. Although some of that was with because he was in a role where he was playing against opposing wings more in Cleveland’s three-big lineup.
Wade, on the other hand, is one of the best Cavs defenders and has earned more time on the court. Will Bickerstaff agree? I’d say probably not because he’s too set in his ways. But if he were to look at this team in a more constructive way, he’d see that Wade’s defense should outweigh the three-point shooting of Markkanen.
Let’s look at Markkanen and his minutes and production. He had 57 games where he had 20 plus minutes. In those games, he scored between 10 to 19 points 31 times. That’s pretty respectable but as a three-point specialist, he should have had more than 17 games where he scored more than 20 points.
I realize too that another player like Dean Wade wasn’t exactly a scoring machine himself last season, but his defense helped the Cavs more than most that cheer on the team want to believe. Defense is where champions are made and if the Cavaliers want to get there, they have to consider reducing Markkanen’s minutes next season and giving Wade more time.