Utah Jazz star Lauri Markkanen says that a major switch flipped for him after getting traded from the Cleveland Cavaliers back in 2022 right before FIBA EuroBasket.
(via Utah Jazz- Front Rowe):
Holly Rowe: “Some of your stops you’re being asked to be in the corner and space and be a three-point threat. What was inside of you that you were like, ‘I know there is so much more to my game.’? What were you thinking about your own game?”
Markkanen: “You know what you can do, and to a point, I feel like I did surprise myself a little bit on I just played in a different way my first couple years in the NBA until the trade to the Jazz happened and that was kinda all I knew. But then you kinda get used to it, how, ‘OK, this is my style. This is how I can impact the game.’ And I feel like the trade to the Jazz right before the tournament was kinda an easy time for me to kinda switch my mindset of, ‘OK, I know I can do more.’ And then I think it was good that we had a game in 13 hours when the trade happened because kinda lock everything out and, ‘It doesn’t matter what NBA team you’re playing for, you’re playing for Finland right now and you try to go out there and be the best player on the court.’ That’s when kinda my mindset changed and I went away from what I have done the past couple years and just go have fun and play with the best effort and the most aggressive style of basketball I’ve ever played. So, that was kinda a mindset switch when that trade happened. So after that, obviously once I started doing those things, it kinda came back to me that, ‘Oh, I can play this type of basketball.’”
