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NEW YORK CITY — Lauri Markkanen has been Utah's best player this season; that is obvious. He's their All-Star — a starter, even, in the prestigious game — the best 3-point shooter, the best scorer, and it could go on and on.
But for most of the season, he hasn't been the team's most important player. That designation fell to Mike Conley.
Conley was the ultimate veteran — the pro's pro, so to speak. He was the unquestioned leader in the locker room, and the great organizer out on the court.
"He is everything you could want as a first-year head coach," Will Hardy said the night the Jazz traded Conley.
That left big shoes to fill, and Markkanen is trying to step into them.
"I have to be the guy," he said after the Jazz lost to the Knicks on Saturday at Madison Square Garden. "Obviously, it's a new group of guys just kind of trying to build this culture. We still have veterans on this team, so I don't have to force it, but just try to be there to help the 'young' guys."
He used air quotes when he said "young" since he's not exactly an elder statesman. Markkanen is still just 25 years old and doesn't have the decades of game experience or the long history of team success that Conley could share when he was in Utah. But he recognizes he has stuff to share that could be valuable for a locker room.
"I haven't been on too (many) successful teams yet, but I've still played a lot of NBA basketball," he said. "So I have seen some stuff and kind of understand some situations. … I'm trying to get better at it. I'm trying to still lead by example; I've always been that way, but trying to pick up the vocal part a little bit too to help the guys out."
Markkanen is reserved by nature. In an early-season team meeting, Hardy was reviewing an end-of-game play where Markkanen failed to come and get the ball. Hardy asked Markkanen if it was a Finland game if he would have stood around and waited for the ball. Hardy knew the answer, and so did Markkanen.
That's when it was vocalized: Markkanen is Utah's best player — and he started playing like it. Now, he realizes he has to be the team leader, too.
"His presence has to change a little bit within the locker room. He has to change a little at practice, at shootaround, at film sessions, stepping into the leadership role a bit more with Mike gone," Hardy said. "He's ready for that."
That doesn't mean Markkanen will be giving rah-rah speeches before games and practices. Hardy said he's been fortunate to be around a lot of great leader who were pretty quiet, too — Conley being among them — and he thinks Markkanen has already started to show he has that in him.
He saw it on Friday in Toronto, when he overcame a physical defense to set the tone for a memorable comeback victory. He also saw it in New York when he shrugged off a 4-for-17 start and dropped 17 points in the fourth quarter.
Hardy praised the presence he had during those games — the way he didn't look for fouls, instead just playing through contact on Friday, and how he never forced things when his shot didn't drop for the majority of the game on Saturday. In doing so, he set the tone for the rest of the team.
"Our team looks to Lauri," Hardy said. "He's an NBA All-Star for a reason, and he's had a consistency about not only his play but his approach all season. All the guys on our team look to him as one of the leaders. … He's definitely growing in that way — stepping into that leadership role — and it's something we'll keep working on."
