Jazz forward Lauri Markkanen won’t play for Finland in the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Spain, Johnny Askounis of Eurohoops.net reports. Markkanen aggravated an impingement to his right shoulder in late March and the injury has still not fully healed.
“Certainly, this is tough,” the Jazz forward said in a statement. “Representing Finland and playing for the national team is an honor for me. Along with my teammates, we have been talking all season about how sweet it would be to advance to the Olympic Games.”
We have more from the Northwest Division:
- The Thunder had an overload of players on their roster last offseason but that won’t be the case this time around, Rylan Stiles of SI.com notes. Oklahoma City will have four open standard contract roster spots available with Gordon Hayward, Bismack Biyombo, Mike Muscala and possibly Lindy Waters III (club option) headed to free agency. They will also have at least one two-way spot available with Olivier Sarr tearing his Achilles late last season. He’s expected to be out all of next season.
- Cason Wallace exceeded expectations in his rookie season with the Thunder, Joe Mussatto of The Oklahoman writes. Wallace, the No. 10 pick of last year’s draft, appeared in every game and make the All-Rookie Second Team. He also shot 41.9% from 3-point range and displayed strong defensive skills.
- In draft news, Melvin Ajinca (France), Jalen Bridges (Baylor), Tristan Enaruna (Cleveland State), Ajay Mitchell (UC Santa Barbara), Jonathan Mogbo (San Francisco) and Baylor Scheierman (Creighton) worked out for the Timberwolves on Monday, the team’s PR department tweets. Scheierman is currently ranked No. 26 on ESPN’s Best Available list.
How much longer do the Jazz intend on keeping Lauri around? He doesn’t exactly fit their timeline and his value has only gone down since February. With what Ainge got back for Spida/Rudy im sure he’s looking for 3 firsts and a starter.
What are you bitching about? If Lauri loves playing in Salt Lake, build a team around him. Seriously, I love to see Salt Lake boast about how they are basketball capital of the world. I don’t want to tear them down.
How doesn’t Markannen fit the Jazz’s timeline? Their best three players are Markannen who just turned 27, Sexton who is 25 and Collins who is 26.
Every team needs a star, I think he stays. Don’t want a bunch of Celtic type teams.
Disagree with most of that, wash. As Chucktoad noted, he’s perfectly within their timeline. His value is more or less unchanged given the miniscule variance in his performance and no serious injuries.
Ainge is, if anything, going to do what he did in Boston for years. Run out good teams, playable teams, every season, then sell off at the tail end of one era and immediately use the assets to boost the next wave of players who were partly established. He did it twice already. He traded the Big 3 Celtics, bottomed out for 1 year, immediately went back to .500 ball, added Horford to Isaiah Thomas and Avery Bradley and took off. Then he added Kyrie by trading Thomas, drafted Tatum, Brown, Rozier, and Smart during that time, and had a sustainable core even when he couldn’t re-sign Horford and Kyrie. He sells off right before the drop, consistently. Considering the Jazz haven’t even hit their stride yet, the sell-off is a ways away imo.
He also fits spurs, raps and OKC.
Dana, all reference pages are SR which is exclusively collegiate sports stuff. Just a piece of advice that that should probably be fixed in later articles of yours