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Eurobasket 2025

Step-Back Lauri said:
I welcome this reality check as a Lauri fan no 1 on this forum. We will see a more clear picture of the state of 2025-26 Lauri, when the actual EuroBasket tournament starts. He'll face better competition. The biggest test will of course be Germany in the group stage. Lithuania is also pretty dangerous and tough team lately, even though they don't have as many NBA players these days they used to have on their roster.
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I think that Lauri definitely enjoys going all-out for the wins when all of his teammates are doing the same. He most certainly did not have the opportunity to do so on the Jazz last season or two - and will not have it in the upcoming season. It must be extremely demotivating and frustrating being the top guy on a team where your GM and coach conspire to make you lose as many games as they can and where all that your teammates care about is putting up big numbers in the hopes of getting traded.

But that is the price you pay for getting that fat contract.
 
The sad part is that if Lauri wastes the rest of his prime playing for horrible Jazz teams he will be quickly forgotten by American basketball fans, like Shareef Abdur-Rahim. And even the Jazz fans 15 years from now will vaguely remember him as someone like Al Jefferson 2.0. I hope that at least people in Finland will remember due to his international play.
 
jazznik said:
A professional player scores way above his averages playing against the competition two tiers down. Stop the presses!

I bet he can also break Wilt's scoring record playing against a high school team from Iowa.
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I had to laugh when I saw this. We have a bit of good news for the Jazz, and sure enough, Jazznik, one of the most negative posters around here, comes out and spits out his wisdom.
 
I tried to get excited about this, but then i realized that it will just up his trade value and we will get a couple more first round picks for him plus filler crap. so done with the rebuild.
 
jazznik said:
A professional player scores way above his averages playing against the competition two tiers down. Stop the presses!

I bet he can also break Wilt's scoring record playing against a high school team from Iowa.
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Oh, hi douche
 
Saint Cy of JFC said:
Believe that 81 points per 48 minutes
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Yep. And 40.3 PPG with only 17.7 FGA thanks to that incredible 13,3 FTA average,

His incredible efficiency at high volume is what made him an all-star few years ago. If he can up his volume in this Eurobasket compared to the previous one he may win the scoring title. He came close last time with something like 27 PPG losing only to Giannis if I recall correctly.
 
If Lauri springboards his success to the regular season... the following will be not to distant future conversational highlights.

1. Crapola - we are pick #9 and OKC is getting the pick
2. Lauri + pick #21 for the 2025 #2 pick + #10 pick filler contracts looks like an absolute bargain for the Spurs just 1 month after the draft.
3. Lauri is shutdown after the all star break to ensure we get the right picks
4. Lauri trade rumors fly... but it will require that he is traded for an absolute haul
5. Lauri is an All star in 2025

In short, I expect the tone to change dramatically from the Lauri hate I have heard for the last 6 months.
 
In yesterdays match, Poland began with double- or triple-teaming Lauri at all times. During first 8 minutes of play time he scored 2 points.

The other finns were essentially playing 4 vs 3 or even 4 vs 2, so no surprise Finland was running away with the game (the finnish players are not exactly elite of the world, but even they do just fine when playing 4 vs 2). The polish coach then changed plans, no finnish players were left un-guarded, and the whoever was guarding Lauri was ordered to foul Lauri every time he got the ball, before he got a chance to shoot. At first it did pay off, as Poland actually managed to catch up (and even went ahead for a moment).

But once the polish teamfoul-limit was full, Lauri got the charity line on every possession, and he was murderous from there. 19 of 20 FT's went in, and Lauri scored 40 points in the remaining 16 minutes of his play-time (it did help the polish coach was thrown out of the game after he got three technical fouls for shouting to the refs, so Team Poland did look like a rudderless boat in a typhoon after that).
 
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Tremendous Upside said:
Don't worry. In the national team, Lauri is obviously the #1 option. That will not be the case on the tanking Utah Jazz this season.
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Were the jazz tanking last year?

He was the #1 option last year.
 
Swuul said:
Match highlights from yesterday. No spesific Lauri highlights, as there really weren't any highlights in addition to one alley-oop.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=8hnjr02bywQ
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Something I was looking for, but not sure if I could 100% tell from this video:

- Does it look like he is moving better as compared to how he looked last year?

Also, just kind of curious:

- What position does he play for the national team?

Also, not sure if this is something that is identifiable from these type of games, but still curious:

- Has he made any progress in his dribbling/passing?
 
SoberasHotRod said:
Something I was looking for, but not sure if I could 100% tell from this video:

- Does it look like he is moving better as compared to how he looked last year?

Also, just kind of curious:

- What position does he play for the national team?

Also, not sure if this is something that is identifiable from these type of games, but still curious:

- Has he made any progress in his dribbling/passing?
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1) Definitively does, in my opinion.

2) In the national team he plays pretty much every position. Most of the time on offense he basically takes the role of SF or SG, on defense C or PF (ie as FIBA doesn't have defensive 3-second rule, he has been standing around near the basket on defense).

3) He has passed more than before, that is for sure, but his team-mates have most of the time failed. One could claim it is because he has given bad passes, while somebody might say it is because the other players in Team Finland are unable to hit the broad-side of a barn. Regarding dribbling, hard to say; he used to bring up the ball a lot with the national team, but now gives a fast opening pass to one side, and then runs to the weak-side; both Belgium and Poland had tag-teams glued on Lauri all the time, so this way he was able to open up the court a lot -> this is a clear change from the previous years. This tactic has then led to opponent teams changing their plan mid-game, which has led to Lauri being freed up (and this has happened pretty much at the same time as the opposing teams foul-limit has been reached, so he has got a lot more often to the charity line).
 
jazznik said:
Last season Lauri was the 3rd on the team in both the total FGA and FGA per 36 (after Keyonte and Sexton). Lauri was the 4th in PPG per 36 after Sexton, Clarkson and Collins.
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Incorrect. He took more attempts per game than keyonte despite playing less minutes. Lead the team in field goal attempts per game despite being an off ball player. (Lauri averaged 14.9 attempts per game. Most on the team. Sexton was second with 13.8 attempts per game) Keyonte averaged 15.7 attempts per game per 36. Lauri averaged 17.1 attempts per game per 36 btw.
Nice try though douche.
 
fishonjazz said:
Incorrect. He took more attempts per game than keyonte despite playing less minutes. Lead the team in field goal attempts per game despite being an off ball player. (Lauri averaged 14.9 attempts per game. Most on the team. Sexton was second with 13.8 attempts per game) Keyonte averaged 15.7 attempts per game per 36. Lauri averaged 17.1 attempts per game per 36 btw.
Nice try though douche.
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Well, originally I typed "Last season Lauri was the 3rd on the team the total FGA (after Keyonte and Sexton)" and then added to that "and FGA per 36" and did not follow it with "(after Clarkson and Sexton)". I still fail to see how the fact that Lauri was still third in FGA/36 but behind another player changes my argument. Again, Lauri was third in FTA/36 and fourth in points per 36. That makes it pretty difficult to argue that he was the first option on the team.

As an aside, I will probably refrain from continuing this conversation with you. You seem to have very vague ideas about how regular people interact and I don't particularly feel like talking with someone who gives off a strong and convincing impression of having been raised in a barn.
 
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