Knicks · What's the differece between KP and Lauri Markkanen? (page 1)

I don't watch Lauri ever and don't really know his game.

He misses about 20-30 games a year, 7 footer who can distance shoot. 27yo. He is in the same contract position as Bogey, his $18M contract guarantees around the draft and is in his last year.

Does he play D?

I have no clue what Utah is doing. OK vet players on team in Lauri, Jordan Clarkson, THT (expiring), John Collins. Lots of yutes. No real player to build around yet? Besides Lauri?

Are teams going to give up the world for him or more like an OG level return?

He will be an UFA after this upcoming season.

Utah will keep getting assets then it will come into focus at some point.
If Minny can do it, so can they?
Thunder looked rudderless until.........

Lauri does miss a lot of games. Even still will get a bit of a raise. To me he is more Bojan than KP but taller.
I don't See him with Knicks. Media might like to clickbait. Only Thing I can see is if we get a pick or other assets back in a bigger deal and we "resetting" of sorts.

At some point Danny Ainge will look smart. He was brilliant to hire Brad Stevens and Boston even smarter to replace Danny with him!
Not sure I recall but I thought Danny walked. He did a good job in Boston and set the table for Stevens who has been great.

Its fun to speculate and figure shit out. Really, I have no clue what Leon might be up to for the draft, our Free agents, and Randles extension.
He came back to CAA? Does that even matter anymore?
Lauri been tranding to 40% 3p shooting in his career. Utah will look stupid until they don't.

Lauri is mostly a shooter/scorer and the last couple of years has been quite efficient. KP when healthy and moving well is a great rim protector and impacts the game as a shotblocker. I don't think Lauri does anything on this end. I though Lauri was supposed to be a "point forward" coming into the league, but he doesn't really rack up any assists. I do see him as more of a bigger, younger Bogey than a KP-lite.

defense and rim protection. also KP's AVERAGE 3point made shot is over 27 feet, he stretches the floor almost to half court.

there's a reason BOS has shot the 3 ball so well this year, their floor spacing with KP is nuts...

It was very rare for a guy like KP in his prime to get traded for peanuts, Lauri is going to command a superstar package, a much bigger contract, and he's not a two way player like KP.

KP is still better at rim protection but Lauri is much more mobile and can block shots. Think of a longer, younger and athletic Bogs that plays defense "well enough" where Thibs won't use him the way he only uses Bogs in spot minutes or when we're offensively challenged on some nights.

With our current style of play I think Lauri would play really well next to either IHart or Mitch. That length could really help push the pace defensively.

Lauri's greatest strength for us would be his outside shooting effiency, not needing to hold/dominate the ball to be effective, ability to play the 5 in spots while still giving us the floor spacing we currently don't have at that position.

Lauri can't play the 5, I mean sure even Randle played some 5 in NOLA, but neither can defend the position. Lauri's block rate is about the same as DDV's for example. To say KP is better at rim protection is putting it mildly.

Always liked both guys, I wanted the Knicks to trade a couple of 1sts for Lauri back in the PSD days...lol. but they are different players. KP is a game changer on defense.

martin wrote:I don't watch Lauri ever and don't really know his game.

He misses about 20-30 games a year, 7 footer who can distance shoot. 27yo. He is in the same contract position as Bogey, his $18M contract guarantees around the draft and is in his last year.

Does he play D?

I have no clue what Utah is doing. OK vet players on team in Lauri, Jordan Clarkson, THT (expiring), John Collins. Lots of yutes. No real player to build around yet? Besides Lauri?

Are teams going to give up the world for him or more like an OG level return?

He will be an UFA after this upcoming season.

Who would you send out, Bogey? I mean, no brainer if you swap him for Bogey and a bunch of draft picks.

I just looked at his stats and KPs. KP might be a better player, but you would have gotten a wee bit more availability from Lauri- and he is a better 3pt shooter.

Jordan Clarkson might be a more gettable player, just thinking that Lauri is 26.

#1 KP offers far superior rim protection

Outside of that I would say Lauri is the superior offensive player because he's an outstanding shooter who can also put the ball on the floor some and he is an efficient player. Lsuri may be the superior rebounder (not sure).

Defensively I'd probably rate them similarly - outside KP's rim protection.

I'd also trust Lauri's health long term vs KP at his extreme height and prior lower extremity injuries.

KP has won more Championships. Too soon?

One guy gets to watch Tatum and Brown do all the work?

nycericanguy wrote:Lauri can't play the 5, I mean sure even Randle played some 5 in NOLA, but neither can defend the position. Lauri's block rate is about the same as DDV's for example. To say KP is better at rim protection is putting it mildly.

Always liked both guys, I wanted the Knicks to trade a couple of 1sts for Lauri back in the PSD days...lol. but they are different players. KP is a game changer on defense.

While he's not KP in the paint - he can play the 5 in spot minutes. I watch Utah on the pass and they use Collins, Lauri and Kessler somewhat interchangeably at the 4 and 5 spots (also Olynk). His block rate isn't high because he mostly plays the 4 guarding on the perimeter. He's versatile enough and has played minutes at the 3 spot on occasion.

I understand these are highlight clips (below) but just watch a minute or two and you can see what he's capable of. He's not a C but you play him next to Mitch or IHart and then you can use him close to the end of the tight games when you can't really play Mitch due to his offensive limitations. Best option is you put him next to IHart and you have even more length and offensive options. You have similar offensive and defensive production to Randle while still allowing the offense to flow through Brunson without the taking turns playing iso-ball. While Randle is strong at 6 '8" he has never seriously played C successfully as he's just not athletic or long enough. He can't guard Embiid but what he can do is force Embiid to play way outside the paint which renders him less effective. He runs the floor and doesn't hold the ball. His weakness would be his questionable toughness at times... and his health. On the court he can fit into most any team because of his style of play. Thibs toughens him up a bit and he's a monster for us.

One of the keys to Knicks success is rebounding. If he can’t do that, we already have Randle at the 4

He has shown to be more of a SF/PF while KP is more of a C/PF. He started at SF next to Mobley & Allen with the Cavs and they had one of the better defensive teams in the league that year. He is probably more effective towards winning in that role.

Philc1 wrote:One guy gets to watch Tatum and Brown do all the work?

One might also appreciate the work that White and Holiday do as part of that starting 5.
If Mazzulla has this teams ear they are not worried about finals MVP and as a unit are more talented than any other team.
KP need not be 1a,b,c, or D to win. These guys all have their money. White is due for extension and Boston will have to juggle it a bit if they want run it back year to year. That is really difficult in the age of Parity with this CBA.

Tatum and Brown looks to be on task and bought in.

Lauri seems more stout

I would worry on KP on any number of teams including ours. Somehow Boston gets mileage out of Horford even after he looked spent in Philly. They have a knack for hiding weaknesses and leveraging strengths.

i don't see where Lauri will get his time though. Replace Randle or OG? he won't be the defensive anchor Thibs likes out of the 5

Chandler wrote:Lauri seems more stout

I would worry on KP on any number of teams including ours. Somehow Boston gets mileage out of Horford even after he looked spent in Philly. They have a knack for hiding weaknesses and leveraging strengths.

i don't see where Lauri will get his time though. Replace Randle or OG? he won't be the defensive anchor Thibs likes out of the 5

It was the year off in OKC where he got all the rest needed.

That does not seem good. So much talent too.

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KP gets more humble as time goes on.
He is a pro at rehabbing.

martin wrote:

Chandler wrote:Lauri seems more stout

I would worry on KP on any number of teams including ours. Somehow Boston gets mileage out of Horford even after he looked spent in Philly. They have a knack for hiding weaknesses and leveraging strengths.

i don't see where Lauri will get his time though. Replace Randle or OG? he won't be the defensive anchor Thibs likes out of the 5

It was the year off in OKC where he got all the rest needed.

It was Philly playing him at 4 next to Joel. It was a terrible fit that was doomed to fail. Harris gets tons of hate b/c he is overpaid and closer to average then he is a star level. At least he makes sense in a lineup with Joel. Tucker and Hartford were both terrible fits on paper and in practice. Philly has a great player. His health is killer but he should be easy to build around. The Sixers have done a terrible job building around him.

Hopefully the Jazz will stop tanking and we will find out one day. They torpedoed a decent overachieving roster at the trade deadline each of the last two seasons instead of giving their team a chance. I would hate to be a fan of that team.

EwingPSD wrote:Hopefully the Jazz will stop tanking and we will find out one day. They torpedoed an decent over achieving roster at the trade deadline each of the last two season instead of giving there team a chance. I would hate to be a fan of that team.

At the same time Danny does this to raise the bar long term. He has gone the route of Presti in OKC whom looked lost for while also. Don't work unless you go deep in the tank and draft quality. Then you have assets to trade.

Im thinking Thunder have 36mil in cap space to use in part on iHart. Not saying we could get a fair value trade but would it not benefit both knicks and OKC to contrast a trade at some level. Presti can relieve team of some excess and stay under the cap getting iHart or another player.
This chess game is 3d and beyond my imagination but not enough that I can't see the concept.

Jazz are not nearly that close and he needs to move Lauri as the cost to resign him/injury risk can be a problem for a team not making the playoffs with him. He is good, not good enough. They have John Collins as a placeholder for mediocrity. He has two years at 26mil each that includes a player option in the second year. His contract gets interesting at some point. He is still only 26. He has had two seasons over 70 games played, not injured a lot, but not durable. His minutes this year under 30 per game. He is trending to a good role player. A sort of not so highly paid Tobias Harris. Some players are ok if you don't look a the contract. Collins money due to inflation is not insane like Harris was at the time. What are the Jazz doing? They are treading water until opportunity presents itself. They have not gotten lucky since DM, but have not done anything really stupid either since trading him out.

OKC looked bad for while and PG13 made no sense once they moved from Westbrick. Remember Melo there? Still they won high 47-48 games and were pretty good. Then traded PG13. Then 44 games and going nowhere. Then cleaned house in 2020-21. OKC killed it with SGA AND a treasure trove of picks. Clipps needed PG13 to bring in Kawhi. Opportunity created the "luck". Presti needed time to tread water also.
Not saying its an exact replica Danny is doing, but he is trying.
Maybe he puts a big package with Lauri to Boston for Jaylen Brown? Then he builds on that. Of course Lauri is a Celtic. All good white dudes are Celtics at some point! LOL Celtics going to cap hell will make things even tougher going forward.

For fans like us we really have to dive in deep to other teams needs to conjure up real time solutions and if we help solve. Thats not our jobs. Its fun to throw trades on the wall and see what sticks!