Lauri Markkanen becoming a commodity creates a new tone for the European Championship. For the coming season, Markkanes has almost no chance to succeed in the Utah Jazz shirt, writes Urheilu’s Roope Visuri.
PRAGUE. Lauri Markkanen smiled freely in front of the international media even on the eve of Susijeng’s EC opening. Late in the evening, however, there was quite a bit of news. Media sources from the United States said that Markkanen would have been traded from the Cleveland Cavaliers to the Utah Jazz.
In the trade, Cleveland acquired a star player from Utah Donovan Mitchell. In addition to Markkanen, the back man who was on the sidelines for almost the entire last season is heading in the other direction Collin Sexton, this summer’s Cleveland first-round pick Ochair Agbajias well as reservation shifts.
The news is dull and depressing for the Finnish star when he thinks about the possibilities of success. In Cleveland, it would have been possible to fight for at least a place in the playoffs like last season. Markkanen has never reached that point in his NBA career, and he probably won’t wear Utah’s jersey in the upcoming season either.
In Utah, Markkanen again drifts into a rebuilding project. The team had already traded the French center before Mitchell Rudy Gobert’s to Minnesota in early June. Both players belong to NBA superstars. The team that was in the playoffs in recent years blew their deck.
However, the news is not surprising in itself. Mitchell’s transfer to Cleveland has already been speculated for a long time.
So why is Markkanen traded?
First of all, the Finnish star’s contract gives an excellent opportunity for that. An annual salary worth 16.5 million US dollars is the right size for this to happen in the NBA. As a result, Markkanen is an excellent commodity when big fish are on the move.
Second, Cleveland seems to want success quickly by putting everything on the line. The team now has all the ingredients to succeed even bigger next season.
Mitchell, booked in the same year as Markkanen, Jarrett Allen, Darius Garland and played a great rookie season Evan Mobley form a really hard frame. From Clevand’s point of view, all of them are still quite young.
In Utah, Markkanen will take on a big role as he has in the Chicago Bulls years, but winning is behind a lot of work. The team is languishing at the bottom of the standings. Utah currently doesn’t have any star players in a tougher category.
Of course, it is also possible that Markkanen will still be traded. Although an ESPN reporter Adrian Wojnarovski I already had time to tell you (you will switch to another service), that Utah would keep Markkanen on the team as part of the rebuilding process. That process is quite a bit, because Utah has no less than 15 first-round reserves for the next seven reserve opportunities with their trades.
The recent trade is in every way an indication of how the NBA is sometimes an extremely raw business. Markkanen had already had time to settle in Cleveland excellently, but after the European Championships, a new address awaits again, which must be mentally challenging.
At the same time, there was a new twist to the European Championships starting on Friday. The Finnish team has been openly talked about the possibility of reaching the top eight in the Games. It has not yet been successful in the EC race pipeline that started in 2011. Naturally, Markkane plays a big role in reaching this difficult achievement.
For Susijeng, the news of Markkanen’s transfer came at the worst possible time, less than a day before the opening match of the European Championships.
It’s exciting to see what kind of Markkanen will be seen in the Prague Arena, surrounded by a large crowd of Finnish supporters in the afternoon. If I had to guess, it would certainly be a Finnish star who is quite introverted and wants to be on the screen.