SALT LAKE CITY. The Utah Jazz prepare for the season at the club’s own training center. Lauri Markkanen who was part of Susijeng’s coaching team in the summer is just finishing his own throwing practice Sean Sheldon with. Markkanen’s throw finds its way in with a high percentage.
There is more electricity in the air than normal. It can be felt from everything that the Jazz’s NBA season opener against the Sacramento Kings is just around the corner.
Markkanen became the superstar of his team last season. He was by far the best scorer on his team with an average of 25.6 points.
In addition to this, Markkanen wrote big chapters in Finnish sports history when he was selected to the starting five of the NBA All Star game and at the end of the season as the most developed player in the entire NBA.
Markkanen’s position in the team is also easy to notice for an outside journalist. The 213-centimeter Finnish player is the favorite interviewee of the numerous journalists. Everyone wants to know what’s going through the Jyväskylä resident’s head just a day before the start of the season.
Urheilu met Markkanen a day earlier, when he was thinking about the starting points for the upcoming season.
– Things have perhaps changed a little since last season, because I am aware of my position in the team. Now more leadership qualities are required of me than before. I have thought about how I should act in order to set an example for my teammates, says Markkanen.
Doesn’t another NBA contract already get you veteran status?
Lauri Markkanen
Even though Markkasen is only 26 years old, he belongs to the experienced guard in the team. Just about the jazz line-up Jordan Clarkson (31), Kelly Olynyk (32), Chris Dunn (29), and Simone Fontecchio (27), have Finnish parents.
The season, which starts on the night between Wednesday and Thursday Finnish time, is already Markkanen’s seventh in the NBA.
– Doesn’t another NBA contract already give you veteran status, Markkanen laughs.
– Nowadays, I’m already starting to feel like a veteran, because some of my teammates are much younger than me. I see them doing some small things for nothing. I myself acted the same way when I came to this league. Nowadays I can advise our rookie players.
The physical load became too great
Markkanen successfully completed his conscript service, which received a lot of attention in North America, during the spring and summer, so the preparation for the season has been completely different from previous seasons in the NBA.
The army is not the reason for anything. I don’t want to blame it.
Lauri Markkanen
In the World Championships, Markkanen was the third best point scorer in the whole tournament with an average of 24.8 points, but he felt that he was not able to help Susijeng enough during the tournament.
Markkanen moved almost normally on the field, but the Explosiveness was not at the same level as, for example, he was used to during the last season.
After the World Championships, Markkanen took a week’s total training break. It was the first in a long time.
– It was a really important break for the physical side. During the last calendar year, I never had a week off. I could see that the physical load from the previous 14 months was so hard that it finally showed that way in the World Cup.
– The army is not the reason for anything. I don’t want to blame it. I feel that everything was caused by physical strain already in the longer term, points out Markkanen.
After a week’s training break, Markkanen has been sweating every day at Jazz’s training center. Everything has been aiming for the moment when the season starts against Sacramento.
– We have had a really tough training season. We have trained hard and played a lot. I have always tried to do a little extra after training so that I would be ready to play.
Has the Explosiveness that was lost in the World Cup returned?
– Glimpsed sometimes, says Markkanen and smiles.
– It must be said that for a long time, my body feels like my own. It gives good confidence for the season.
A new season and new winds is a well-worn phrase, but it is the truth for Markkanen. In the opponent’s papers, Markkanen is the Jazz’s most marked player night after night.
He already got indications of this last season, when he made a strong impression on the field. The opponent was forced to defend the Finn from time to time with two players and the same treatment is expected from Wednesday night onwards.
I’ve been focusing more on Lauri’s head lately, because he’s been loaded with a lot of expectations.
Will Hardy, head coach, Utah Jazz.
Markkanen admits that it will be difficult to repeat a jackpot season like last year, but he does not consider the trick impossible.
– I haven’t shown what I’m capable of at my best yet. There are a lot of things that I can develop from last season. I don’t think the season is going to get any harder. I approach it so that even if I sometimes fail, it gives me the opportunity to develop as a player, says Markkanen.
The comment says a lot about Markkanen’s mental abilities. Difficult years in the jersey of the Chicago Bulls often dragged the Finnish player’s spirit down. In the last Bulls season 2020–2021, the Jyväskylä native was condemned in the US media as a lost promise.
However, in two years, Markkanen has risen to the category of the NBA’s elite players and silenced the doubters.
However, this is not enough for the star player who is thirsty to win. He wants to prove to a large audience and above all to himself that he can do the same for several seasons in a row.
– Recently, I have focused more on Lauri’s head, because he has been loaded with a lot of expectations. This is a tough year for Lauri. He knows it and is ready for it. Last year, nobody expected anything from Lauri. Now the expectations are high and it also knows that he will be criticized, the head coach Will Hardy said at a press conference.
Markkanen has started leading in a new way
On the field, Markkanen is used to making results, but perhaps an even bigger change is known as the team’s spiritual leader. Even last season, Finland’s lone NBA star had a veteran player watching next to him Mike Conley’s activities as a team leader.
In February, Conley was traded to the ranks of the Minnesota Timberwolves in a big player trade. Already at that time, Markkanen took big steps forward as the team’s father figure.
– Conley had a lot of qualities as a leader that I would like to have. I’m not saying I’m already at his level. Conley was a quieter person who was respected and listened to by everyone. He knew how to get the players’ attention.
This year I have tried to take on the role of a leader vocally as well.
Lauri Markkanen
However, Markkanen doesn’t want to copy anyone, he wants to do things his own way.
– I have always tried to lead by my own example. I try to be in the gym earlier than others and do a little extra exercises every day.
– This year I have tried to take on the role of a leader vocally as well. In my case, it means that I personally go to talk to the players, explains Markkanen.
Markkanen’s position as the team’s number one goal is indisputable. In practice games, the Jazz tried several different combinations in the starting five, only the Finn and the 213-centimeter center forward, who is starting his second season in the NBA by Walker Kesler positions remained intact.
– Lauri is the leader of this team and his teammates look to him in difficult moments. In some situations, his game necessarily goes. Then it is important how Lauri reacts and carries himself, because it has an effect on the whole team. He knows this thing. We have talked about this a lot and he is ready for this responsibility, says head coach Hardy.
Thanks to his versatility, Markkanen was in the starting five either as a small or big winger. The men next to me, on the other hand, changed.
Before the start of the season, the playmaking department seems like the Jazz’s weakest link. According to rumors, the Jazz tried to recruit a point guard during the summer Jrue Holiday to Salt Lake City, but star player Holiday chose the Boston Celtics.
In practice games, the team’s most important playing position varied Collin Sexton, Taylor Horton-Tucker and Kris Dunn. Of course, all of them are high-quality players, but they are not born playmakers.
One of the challenges for a star player like Markkanen is to lead the Jazz to a playoff team again.
It would also be a big success for Markkanen, because he has not been able to feel the atmosphere of playoff games in his career. In the Cavaliers shirt, Markkanen played once in the playoff qualifiers.
The Western Conference is very tough this season. There are several teams in the West that have been promoted to the group of championship candidates.
Jazz does not belong to that group, but Markkanen outlines the team’s goal very directly.
– Get more wins than last season.
What about on a personal level?
– I’m going to be aggressive on the field and lead the team with my own performances. It doesn’t matter much to me if there are big changes in my own statistics. If we win matches, that’s the only thing that matters in the end, says Markkanen.
Lauri Markkanen’s and Utah Jazz’s NBA season starts at 4 a.m. Finnish time on Thursday. You can find the best bits of the match on the app and Urheilu’s website on Thursday morning.