Just about every Utah Jazz fan should now know that Lauri Markkanen is currently in the middle of a Renaissance during the 2025 Eurobasket tournament. Among those who pay attention, jazz coach Will Hardy, and not only because he is the head coach of jazz, but also because this was what helped to elevate Markkas when the Jazz first got him.
Tim Bontemps van ESPN explained this during the most recent episode of “The Hope Collective”Die Hardy saw Markkanen’s Eurobasket version from 2022, which changed the Jazz star to … well a star!
“If you go back a few years ago, when Will Hardy got the jazz courts, he went and saw Markkanen playing with Finland in this tournament and came back and set up many things for jazz to run through Markkanen in the same way as he did with the Finnish national team.
“(Markkanen) had by far the best year of his career, made an All-Star team … and launched himself in a new stratosphere, including getting a very large contract extension.”
Although it might be a standard for coaches to do what Hardy did then, his special attention for Markkans more or less exploded him. Although it was surprising to see Markkans playing at the level he did in year 6, everyone from his early days knew the kind of potential he had, but he never completely met the Chicago Bulls and Cleveland Cavaliers.
Hardy who does it again could very well lead to the Eurobasket performance of Markkans who translate themselves into NBA star row. Utah may fill again, but they are expected to fight, even if they expect to lose a lot of games during the process. That means hopefully that Markkans will look more like his old self.
Will Hardy unlock more jazz players?
Markkanen is very easy the best success story of Hardy as a coach. He came to Utah like a former lottery pick with unfulfilled expectations until he met Hardy’s guidance and with enough details she then met.
Markkanen was released in Utah, which many should wonder what that could mean for part of the other young talent of jazz. There has not been a highlight for the past three years, such as Markkanen, but that can certainly change, especially now that the jazz has added some intrusive young talent to the team.
Unfortunately, Utah just went through a season where the biggest striking among their young players were Brice Sensabaigh and Kyle Filipowski, which was honestly not a bad thing. The eyes of everyone, however, were aimed at Keyonte George and Cody Williams, who didn’t come close to meet the bar set up for them.
This season will be a good way to test to see if Hardy can help get the best out of the young talent he has as he did with Markkanen. Hardy has proven that he is a good coach, but nobody can expect him to be a wonder worker. However, his success with Markkanen has to make everyone optimistic for what he can do with their other young people.
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