Around the League 2022-23

[Lipoli390]

When did Lauri Markkanen become a superstar?

He averaged 1.8 fta in 2021. He averaged 2.6 fta in 2022.

He had 21 free throw attempts last night. He's had at least 12 fta in 5 of his past 7 games.

hmmmm....

The talent has always been there, which is why some wanted the Timberwolves to sign/acquire Lauri Markkanen two off-seasons ago, but he really showed that star progression this summer in the FIBA World Cup. Different player than he was before. He's been excellent this season.

Markkanen is yet another example of why I've harped on having patience with young players. Not every talented player has a big leap in his second or third season. Sometimes it doesn't happen until a player's 4th or 5th.

I think this means being back Patton :)

Lol. Why did you have to bring up that sore spot, kek?!! I remember the buzz that year was that the Wolves were going to keep Markkenan if they hadn't made the Butler deal. I remember I was not a fan of Markkenan at the time. Of course, I also remember that I would have drafted Zach Collins with that pick -- not something I like to admit. But I would have done well if I had been in charge of drafting after the Butler trade because I would have taken John Collins or Anunoby. I remember being torn between the two and then disgusted when Thibs picked Patton.

[kekgeek]

When did Lauri Markkanen become a superstar?

He averaged 1.8 fta in 2021. He averaged 2.6 fta in 2022.

He had 21 free throw attempts last night. He's had at least 12 fta in 5 of his past 7 games.

hmmmm....

The talent has always been there, which is why some wanted the Timberwolves to sign/acquire Lauri Markkanen two off-seasons ago, but he really showed that star progression this summer in the FIBA World Cup. Different player than he was before. He's been excellent this season.

Markkanen is yet another example of why I've harped on having patience with young players. Not every talented player has a big leap in his second or third season. Sometimes it doesn't happen until a player's 4th or 5th.

I think this means being back Patton :)

Lol. Why did you have to bring up that sore spot, kek?!! I remember the buzz that year was that the Wolves were going to keep Markkenan if they hadn't made the Butler deal. I remember I was not a fan of Markkenan at the time. Of course, I also remember that I would have drafted Zach Collins with that pick -- not something I like to admit. But I would have done well if I had been in charge of drafting after the Butler trade because I would have taken John Collins or Anunoby. I remember being torn between the two and then disgusted when Thibs picked Patton.

Obviously I don't want to relive the butler trade (I'm still 100% cool with it) but it is crazy how good Markannan became because like you I hated Lauri but man good for him. Also crazy for the. Perception of the trade just changes because the wolves bombed the Patton pick (it's crazy Patton hurts his foot right away), if the wolves draft Collins or Kuzma what a trade for the wolves.

I also love looking at the linage of the trade.

Butler and Patton for Dunn, Lavine and Markannan.

Butler for Covington, Saric, Bayless and a 2nd (minott) (terrible trade when you look at it)

Saric and Cam Johnson for Culver

Covington for Beasley, Vando, juancho and the picks that became Mcdaniels and bolmaro (one of the most underrated trades in wolves history)


Culver and Juancho for Beverley

The gobert trade this offseason.

So using the trade thread (what is so stupid for me to do) the butler trade final results is.

Lavine, Markannan, Dunn, Kessler, and the 4 picks for Rudy, Mcdaniels, Patton and Minott.

[AbeVigodaLive]

Of course. There are always outliers in anything.

But the vast majority of All Star quality players show incremental improvement.

If a guy stagnates or regresses, it often means he is who he is... OR... needs a change of scenery.

[kekgeek]

Of course. There are always outliers in anything.

But the vast majority of All Star quality players show incremental improvement.

If a guy stagnates or regresses, it often means he is who he is... OR... needs a change of scenery.

Agree with this. There is usually 1 guy a year that comes out of nowhere to be a stud. This year it was Markannan last year Miles Bridges, oladipo a couple of years ago.

It's an outlier for sure. Hope the wolves get that one day

[Jester1534]

When did Lauri Markkanen become a superstar?

He averaged 1.8 fta in 2021. He averaged 2.6 fta in 2022.

He had 21 free throw attempts last night. He's had at least 12 fta in 5 of his past 7 games.

hmmmm....

The talent has always been there, which is why some wanted the Timberwolves to sign/acquire Lauri Markkanen two off-seasons ago, but he really showed that star progression this summer in the FIBA World Cup. Different player than he was before. He's been excellent this season.

Markkanen is yet another example of why I've harped on having patience with young players. Not every talented player has a big leap in his second or third season. Sometimes it doesn't happen until a player's 4th or 5th.

I think this means being back Patton :)

Lol. Why did you have to bring up that sore spot, kek?!! I remember the buzz that year was that the Wolves were going to keep Markkenan if they hadn't made the Butler deal. I remember I was not a fan of Markkenan at the time. Of course, I also remember that I would have drafted Zach Collins with that pick -- not something I like to admit. But I would have done well if I had been in charge of drafting after the Butler trade because I would have taken John Collins or Anunoby. I remember being torn between the two and then disgusted when Thibs picked Patton.

Obviously I don't want to relive the butler trade (I'm still 100% cool with it) but it is crazy how good Markannan became because like you I hated Lauri but man good for him. Also crazy for the. Perception of the trade just changes because the wolves bombed the Patton pick (it's crazy Patton hurts his foot right away), if the wolves draft Collins or Kuzma what a trade for the wolves.

I also love looking at the linage of the trade.

Butler and Patton for Dunn, Lavine and Markannan.

Butler for Covington, Saric, Bayless and a 2nd (minott) (terrible trade when you look at it)

Saric and Cam Johnson for Culver

Covington for Beasley, Vando, juancho and the picks that became Mcdaniels and bolmaro (one of the most underrated trades in wolves history)


Culver and Juancho for Beverley

The gobert trade this offseason.

So using the trade thread (what is so stupid for me to do) the butler trade final results is.

Lavine, Markannan, Dunn, Kessler, and the 4 picks for Rudy, Mcdaniels, Patton and Minott.

I think you made me rock hard with this trade tree.
I love a good trade tree.

You should do the Kevin Love trade tree it's fun one that still lives on in DLO

[Q-is-here]

Kyrie Irving just single-handedly destroyed the Utah Jazz. 48 points on 29 shots and only 4 of those came from free throws! Just an amazing shot maker. Oh, and he had 11 rebounds, 6 assists, 4 steals, and only 1 turnover.

[Monster]

Of course. There are always outliers in anything.

But the vast majority of All Star quality players show incremental improvement.

If a guy stagnates or regresses, it often means he is who he is... OR... needs a change of scenery.

Agree with this. There is usually 1 guy a year that comes out of nowhere to be a stud. This year it was Markannan last year Miles Bridges, oladipo a couple of years ago.

It's an outlier for sure. Hope the wolves get that one day

The thing is Markkanen didn't completely come out of nowhere this year.

First of all I will admit it looks like I was wrong about him in the draft. I was skeptical about his upside but I also thought he was very likely to be a worthwhile while player with some chance to be pretty good like we see here. After his last year with the Bulls I was actually in favor of dealing for him or signing him but not for what Cleveland gave up for him so I was right and then wrong again.

Let's go back to that last Chicago season. He played fewer minutes but shot the hell out of the ball. Last year in Cleveland he changed positions playing a lot of SF with the Cavs going big and he was an effective player on a surprising team that made the playoffs. Then he gets dealt to another team who also has no expectations and needs scoring more than the Cavs did and he continues to play a lot as a huge SF. Yeah he has exploded into a really good player this season offensively but there was some progression into this the last couple seasons.

Miles Bridges did make a big jump too but the previous season his 3rd in the NBA he shot 50% from the field and shot 40% from 3. Brunson burst onto the scene last year but he had been progressing as well over time.

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

Shoutout to Josh Okogie. He's pretty much still the same player he's always been, but he had a great game tonight for Phoenix and even led them in scoring. I was able to catch most of the second half.

Okogie finished with 24 points (5-9 2P, 1-2 3P, 11-15 FT), 10 rebounds, 4 assists (1 turnover), 4 blocks, and 1 steal in 34 minutes off the bench. He plays so damn hard that he's bound to run into some of these games.

[Q-is-here]

Shoutout to Josh Okogie. He's pretty much still the same player he's always been, but he had a great game tonight for Phoenix and even led them in scoring. I was able to catch most of the second half.

Okogie finished with 24 points (5-9 2P, 1-2 3P, 11-15 FT), 10 rebounds, 4 assists (1 turnover), 4 blocks, and 1 steal in 34 minutes off the bench. He plays so damn hard that he's bound to run into some of these games.

Always an adventure with Okogie. He is literally a reliable corner 3-pt shot away from making $15M+ per year and being a regular rotation player, because his motor and one on one defense is elite. But because he doesn't trust his 3, he compounds the problem by making some wild drives into the paint that sort of mess things up. Obviously things were working for him last night - good to see!

[Q-is-here]

We got a peek at a full-strength Clippers team today and they manhandled Dallas on the road.

New Orleans' injury issues are catching up to them, as they dropped one to Miami and have lost 8 out of their last 10.

There are probably 9 or 10 teams in the West capable of being anywhere from a 1-3 seed IF they were mostly healthy this season. The race to a top 6 seed largely depends on player health and availability.