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I actually secretly hoped that Lauri explodes at EuroBasket, impresses some quality teams and finds a new home. His time on the Jazz reminds me of an unhappy marriage where the couple stays together partially out of inertia and partially because they think that breaking up would be too...

Why is everybody all of a sudden so concerned how the Jazz will deal with the mighty Markkanen? Is it because he for some reason - and unlike other good NBA players - decided to run up the stats against bad European teams? In his 3 games against quality teams Lauri averages 19.7 PPG/ 9.3 RPG/3.0...

Why should we be less interested about the Jazz now? The upcoming season is one of the most exciting and unpredictable ones that I remember as a Jazz fan. So many players may have either a break-out year or to completely crash their value and hit a hard ceiling. - Will Lauri be OK with...

Who IS a fan of the Jazz team and not a fan of specific players? Players are not interchangeable and not fungible. If the owner of the Jazz somehow pulled a swap and got an entire 2025 OKC team in the Jazz uniform would you immediately start cheering for them? And if this OKC squad wins the...

I have a question. It looks like all of Finnish players of note - Markkanen, Muurinen, Little, Koponen - have parents who have also been basketball players. It is definitely a thing in America too but not nearly to the same extent. Why is it so? Is it because basketball in Finland is a very...

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...

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.

Everybody knows that he is lying, right?! Ainge is just hoping that trading away Collins, Sexton and Clarkson will make the Jazz so bad that there would be no need for any shenanigans. But if the Jazz unexpectedly start winning games...

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...

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...

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.

That's like... demonstrably false? The Stockton and Malone Jazz were not built with high draft picks, out of Deron, Boozer, Memo and AK only Deron was a high pick. Mitchell and Gobert were not high picks either.

Um, look at Chet's stats in the different rounds of the recent playoffs.

Lauri is certainly below SGA and above the current version of Chet. JW is his closest match.

That is a very valid observation. Unfortunately, the game style and financial framework in the NBA change every several years and nobody has the luxury of waiting for the sample size to increase and only after that start making moves based on the sufficient". Teams react and copy each other...

Yes and no. Indiana is in also a small market team that doesn’t attract free agents and they did not get exactly lucky in the draft but they had a very good chance of winning this year too. I think the blueprint for the teams like the Jazz do exist and it contains several key components: 1...

I just looked up the Pacers as another blueprint. They also had only two large contracts (Haliburton and Siakim), Turner on a very friendly contract and a bunch of very good role players on rookie deals. It is a very similar situation to OKC.

OKC just won a championship. They provided a very good realistic template for the Jazz on how to assemble a contender: OKC is a small-market team in a less-then-desirable city without a rich owner. They won by having an MVP-level player (SGA)+ 2 All-Stars (Williams, Holmgren)+ 3...

This is the April lineup.

My starters: Kessler - Markkanen - Bailey - Williams - Clayton. The reasoning: the Jazz will not be able to trade Lauri or Kessler and they will force-feed minutes to Ace, Cody and Clayton to see what they have and to secure much needed losses. The Jazz would love starting Hendricks but they...