While T.J. McConnell and Andre Igoudala duke it out to become the last Arizona Wildcat standing in the 2018 NBA Playoffs, another high-profile former Arizona player is already in the midst of the most important offseason of his life.
Just as the league’s regular-season neared its end, Lauri Markkanen, Sean Miller’s one-year wonder and the No. 7 pick of last year’s NBA draft, sat in his locker stall at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center, stretched his long legs and sat down for a chat with reporters.
As is to be expected in the media capital of the world, there were reporters from all over, including Markkanen’s homeland of Finland.
Earlier that day, April 9, when the Chicago Bulls came to town to visit the Nets in the penultimate game of the season, Chicago Bulls vice president of basketball operations John Paxson beamed when he talked about his prized prospect. He spoke about his growth and his maturation, his skill and his promise, the importance of this offseason but the need, first, for Markkanen to return home and spend quiet time with friends, family, and the place he knows best.
Then, Paxson said with a fire in his eyes, it’s time to get back to work.
Former UA Wildcat Lauri Markkanen, right, topped Stephen Curry’s league record for fewest games (41) to hit 100 3-pointers to start a career.
Fighting the grind
Coming off a rookie season that started with instant turmoil — a draft day trade with the Minnesota Timberwolves, who surrendered Markkanen’s draft rights, along with Zach Lavine and Kris Dunn in exchange for Jimmy Butler and the No. 16 pick (Justin Patton) — and then saw even more — a brawl between would-be starting power forward Nikola Mirotic and fellow forward Bobby Portis resulted in a broken jaw for Mirotic and an eight-game suspension for Portis, thrusting Markkanen into the starting lineup from Day 1.
You could understand Markkanen’s need for a breather.
Paxson, a former Bulls player, says “the grind” indeed took its toll on Markkanen. Markkanen averaged 15 points and 7.5 rebounds per game. His milestones, though, may have superseded his stats.
After scoring 25 points at Miami in just his sixth game, 26 at Phoenix on Nov. 9 and 32 against Indiana on Dec. 29, Markannen had his national coming out party on the sport’s biggest stage. He torched the New York Knicks for 33 points on Jan. 10, raining eight 3-pointers while grabbing 10 rebounds. The Bulls won 122-119 in overtime.
Five days later, Markkanen delivered an even more impressive feat.
On Jan. 15, in a 119-111 win over Miami, Markannen — all seven feet of him – became the fastest player in league history (41 games) to reach 100 3-pointers in a career, besting Stephen Curry’s record by 17 games.
For a night, he was king, one of the hottest names in the basketball universe.
And that may have been the apex of it all.
Markannen missed eight of the team’s final 16 games with back issues. When he wasn’t missing games, he was missing shots, suffering a late-February long-range shooting slump (14 of 58) that caused his 3-point shooting percentage to drop to 36.2 percent for the year.
Asked to reflect on his rookie season to that point, Markkanen was fair in his assessment.
“I’ve had my ups and downs,” Markkanen said. “Some moments I can be proud of, and moments I’m not proud of. It’s been a decent first year and I’m excited to use this summer to get better.”
But first, Paxson insists, to get well.
“The one thing I learned as a player is the NBA season is long, and you do have to rest your body and relax,” Paxson said. “You have to get away from it. I think a lot of injuries happen because of overuse. It’s a long grind, especially for such a young kid. We know he’s a worker, we have a plan in place and he’ll follow it. We know that.”
Funny thing is, as long as the NBA season is on the body, it’s faster on the mind.
“It definitely moved fast,” Markkanen said. “You looked at having 82 games, how long could this season be? But then you realize, not that long. We played these 82 in almost the same amount as we at Arizona played 30.”
It’s easy to forget — when he’s raining down 3s, dropping 30 and making even the savviest of veterans nod in approval, when he’s coming off a screen, ever so deftly, catching the ball and popping from deep — that Markkanen was still a college freshman last year.
Opening up
The baby-faced newcomer hasn’t changed all that much since his days rocking McKale Center. Like so many in recent Arizona basketball history, he arrived to great fanfare. He wasn’t the leaper that Aaron Gordon was, or the rangy stalwart that Stanley Johnson was, but Markkanen quickly captured the imagination of UA fans, even if his stay was brief.
Markkanen’s hair is a bit longer now, but he’s still quiet, almost reticent to talk about his accomplishments.
His are not one-word answers, but they are mostly one-sentence answers. Stitched together, they tell a pretty telling narrative of his first year.
“There’s nights that the shot’s not falling, so you try to get to the rim, try to be aggressive. …
“I don’t play for stats. I think if you play the right way, the stats will follow. … That’s what people are doubting me for, that I can’t rebound. I took that personally. … I’ve been pretty banged up, I’m pretty tired.”
To those in the Bulls locker room, it may be a put on.
“I don’t know this soft-spoken Lauri you’re talking about,” teammate Robin Lopez said. “Right away, he came in, seemed like a real comfortable guy. Comfortable with everything around him, which is nice to see from a rookie.”
Portis said Markkanen “didn’t talk that much” at first, then got comfortable with his teammates.
“He was always a quiet guy, he probably didn’t say two words, but now it’s great to see him open up a little bit,” he said.
A late-season back injury forced Markkanen to miss eight of the team’s final 16 games.
Future is bright
In pregame shootaround, Markkanen is all business. He takes a succession of shots around the arc, drains a few midrange jumpers, practices some dribble-drives.
It’s that scoring arsenal that made the Bulls jump at him, even sacrificing a major talent like Butler in the process.
“He’s shown glimpses of some iso game where you can throw him the ball, like Nowitzki used to do at the elbow and mid-post,” Paxson said. “That’s going to be his next step. Below the free-throw line, where he can be a player with, whether it’s shot fakes, drives, footwork, pull-ups – that’s the next step. It goes back to why we’re excited about him, he’s not a finished product.”
Finnish, maybe, but not finished.
The first order of business: Muscle up a bit. Both Markkanen and the Bulls want him to add strength in order to compete better in the post.
Then, basketball takes over, and Markkanen can go to work trying to become the best shooting European big man since Nowitzki.
“It’s starting to be more common to have big guys shooting the ball from long-distance,” Lopez said. “But it’s definitely something unique to Lauri. He’s got a quick release, and when he’s on, he’s on like nobody else. It’s not just the 3-ball. He can score in myriad ways.”
That’s not enough, though.
Not for Markannen. Not for the Bulls.
“Defensively, he’s made a lot of strides,” coach Fred Hoiberg said. “He’s a guy who can switch off on guards. Great feet. Good instincts, anticipation — that’s an area he’s really grown. His off-the-bounce game, he’s taken strides. The confidence he’s shooting the ball with right now — it’s been a lot of fun to watch that. He’s just made so many strides across the board.
“The kid is showing us he’s going to be a special player in this league.”
