Seems extremely not ideal to me. Him being full time military for six months and then coming back to an already active NBA season with no preparation or conditioning sounds rough.
We shoulda sent him away to do this in the middle of the season after it was obvious he was awesome and ****ing up the tank after 10 games or so. I wanted to be all in next season. Our best guy doing no off season prep at all is not great.
This is
not at all what will happen.
First of all he'll come to SLC pretty much straight away after the World Cup, which ends early September. He'll be back in good time for the start of training camp.
Secondly, he'll be on top shape (just as this year) to start the season, after a month of the national team's training camp and playing against the best in the world in the World Cup.
He'll have an unusual summer for sure, but he'll put in just as much work as last summer. Sure, he won't get to be with his family in Finland as much, won't have time off to relax etc. If anyone should be worried about anything, it's a little bit of mental fatigue. But knowing Lauri, I doubt that will be a problem.
From April to early August he'll wake up every day at 6-7am, have maybe 6hrs of military training, lifting/conditioning with the whole group during the day and then do basketball stuff after 4pm. And he'll probably have a more than a few 18yo b-ballers from the Army Sports School's intake willing to do whatever Lauri asks of them in the gym. And he'll have most weekends off (after boot camp period is over) plus a few Mondays for good measure.
And the team doesn't get to
send anyone anywhere. There was no chance in hell of Lauri going anywhere in the middle of his All Star breakout season. Plus it's a moot point anyway because you can only start your military service on specific dates with the rest of the group. In Lauri's case April 17th.
It remains to be seen what his service actually entails.
Very standard stuff. Sitting in a class room: starting with rote learning of military ranks, how to salute officers etc. Then some very basic tactics and actual military stuff. Other basics in the barracks: weapons handling, walking in formation etc. And that's a lot more of the rote learning. People will remember 30 years on how to take apart and put back their rifle even if they don't touch a gun in their life between then and serving. Out in the field some target practice and then a couple of "camping trips" in the woods. And I'm sure the unit's commanding officers are smart and won't send Lauri on a 15k march with full pack to mess his feet even if the rest of the group goes - maybe they'll magically happen to schedule his pre World Cup media availability on the exact date that's on the calendar for the company... Any injury to Lauri during his service would be an absolute ******** of negative PR for the military. And even more so with the World Cup this summer.
I think there’s even an outside chance the Jazz just hold training camp there.
Zero chance.
