NBA All-Star Lauri Markkanen is Putting the League on Notice with the Utah Jazz

Patience

Patience.

And…

Patience.

Still there?

We’re on Lauri Markkanen time right here.

His story is one of patience. Like, one where nothing, like, nothing really, um, even kinda, sorta happens at first. Or at second. Enough doesn’t happen that what has happened gets forgotten. But that doesn’t mean there’s nothing happening. Stuff is happening.

Patience is a test. It’s illusions and confusions. What’s real isn’t revealed for a long time. How strong is will? Patience will be the great unveil. Patience is lonely. Patience is a marathon. It’s stamina unending. How long will the run be? How far is the distance? Can the sprint continue all the way into the unknown? What if the running isn’t worth the work?

What if it is?

So…

Patience.

This test isn’t pass or fail. Pass or fail is a destination. Markkanen’s story is not about arriving.

It’s about becoming. He knows perseverance.

Because even what he’s done with the Utah Jazz this season, a season where it looks like he has arrived, isn’t complete yet. Though it does look like the fury of the patient man has become a fire. The 7-foot Markkanen is looking more like the potential has been realized. He’s looking like an offensive cornerstone, a stone that had to survive unforgiving rushing rapids, a stone that’s lasted to become fully polished and shiny.

Shiny like 25 points and 9 boards a game. He’s had a 49-point outburst and he’s had six games of at least 13 rebounds. He’s had gamewinners and he’s had the firepower to ignite complete blowouts. There’s some new confidence to him out there. But it might not even be new. Patience is a test of illusions and confusions. Maybe he’s always been this all along? Has he always been this good? Statistically, no. This is his best and most impactful campaign since the Bulls selected him with the seventh pick in 2017. There’s some type of spirit in him this season, something entirely different from everything we saw during his time in Chicago and Cleveland. It just might’ve been restrained, which can be attributed to any number of reasons, from more famous names demanding more shots to less nuanced leadership not realizing how much Markkanen is capable of. So he’s been let off the leash and all of that marathon sprinting he’s been doing has led him to rove ’round the floor without any restrictions. It’s credit to first year head coach Will Hardy and even more credit to Markkanen for continuing to work in the silence of patience, when absolutely nothing was even promised.

And with nothing promised, Markkanen improved on everything. He’s gotten better at creating his own shot and at finishing around the rim. He can roll, pop or slip from any ball-screen situation. He can post or face, dunk or shoot, draw fouls and make free throws. He’s the Jazz’s closing option because of the matchup problem that comes with a mobile and aggressive 7-footer.

The skill set varies from moment to moment. Markkanen acts as a slasher, with his foot pressed all the way down on the accelerator to meet a lob at the rim. He goes off the bounce by himself, finishing through contact. He spots up in the corner, waiting for a pass to drill a three.

More waiting.

More patience. Many a mind has valued patience to the utmost.

“Genius is eternal patience,” Michelangelo, who crafted the frescoes on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, once said.

“I get you all you can eat, just have some patience with me,” Aubrey Graham, who is the voice of a generation, once said.

Markkanen’s whole team is eating because of his patience. Behind resurgent performances from Jordan Clarkson, Mike Conley, Malik Beasley, Kelly Olynyk and Collin Sexton, the Jazz are right back in the playoff hunt during a season in which the bottom was outside the world’s expectations. Their best player has them just 1.5 games from fifth in the West, as we go to press.

In fact, he and Conley have created a pick-and-roll duo that follows in the tradition of John Stockton and Karl Malone and Deron Williams and Carlos Boozer. Markkanen is in the 80th percentile in the League as a finisher out of PNR. Other numbers tell a similar story as he inches close to a 50-40-90 season. Right now he’s 52-42-87. It’s striking efficiency considering how a ton of the offense relies on him.

Does high-level basketball like that only come through patience? Could he have done that at stop No. 1 or stop No. 2? Could he have been mature enough to handle so many different looks on the offensive side?

Do any of these questions even matter?

No, they don’t. Because we’re here now, in this moment where Lauri Markkanen should represent the Utah Jazz at the ’23 All-Star Game in Salt Lake City. He’s taken the leap out of ever-waiting patience up into a consistent scoring threat from each of the three necessary levels. In a year where nobody expected anything to happen, a lot has happened. If he doesn’t make it, there will be more time for him to get there, no matter which city it’s being held in. He’s just 25 years old. We know that he has patience.

His head coach Will Hardy knows it, too.

“I thought it was another game where Lauri seemed to kinda do a little bit of everything, made threes, got to the basket with force early in the game,” he said just a few days before we went to press. “He’s just continuing to grow before our eyes every night in terms of understanding there’s a lot of different ways to be effective on the offensive end in this League, especially when you have his combination of size, skill, and athleticism.”

Just a little patience.

Photos via Getty Images

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