Apparently, after tonight, Lauri “Saippuakivikauppias” Markkanen has set the record for most made threes in the first 20 games of a career. Kind of an arbitrary cutoff, but I can find stats way more arbitrary, so it’s all good. I’m not going to tell you how many threes that is, because I want it to be a surprise, but I will tell you that it is more than Damian Lillard, the previous record holder, made.
And, he’s only played 19 games. So he has a whole game where he can just sit at center court and look around and all the wonderful people who paid money to see him play basketball.
Markkanen does seem to have the green light in Chicago by this point. So does everyone else, probably, except for Paul Zipser, but Markkanen is in a perfect position to capitalize. As a taller person, he can shoot shots that other players can’t. He can take jumpers whenever he wants, no matter the defense. And, most importantly, he can position himself underneath the basket, receive a pass, and deposit it directly into the next with two hands. If I were him I would do that on every play, but I understand that sometimes people want to try other types of scoring. That’s cool. Just remember to dunk it every now and then.