Attention: the move at 0:10 of this video is one of the sickest rookie plays of the year. So smooth, so under control, and we didn’t even get a replay of it. That’s one bad thing about these new timeout rules: not as much time for sick replays! I wanted several angles of Lauri Markkanen going behind the back right into a three-pointer. Not just one, but several. Instead, we got none, and this vid suffers for it.
Markkanen, aside from that sick shot, had yet another decent game with 19 points. It’s not 32, a performance which will distort the value of his lesser scoring nights, but we can’t expect him to score that much all the time. Even Durant (who Markkanen is a white version of) struggled plenty in his rookie season with scoring 20 game in and game out.