Jazz's Lauri Markkanen on team's deadline moves: 'Control what you can control'

SALT LAKE CITY — Lauri Markaknen stood slightly bent over, catching his breath, as he watched head coach Will Hardy demonstrate a post move.

Pivot your foot here. Hold the ball high. Use the opponent's body as leverage to create space.

Then it was Markkanen's turn. Again. And again. And again.

When the Jazz star was finally finished, he was the only player remaining on the practice court.

How does Markkanen get past a deadline that, once again, weakened his team? Go right back to work.

"Control what you can control; that's really all it is," Markkanen said. "You never expect those things, and don't know what's going to happen. All you can worry about is your mindset going into practice and your mindset spending time with each other, and kind of learning and just chipping away. … Controlling what you can control is the biggest thing."

He didn't have a say in the future-focused deadline moves. He found out that Simone Fontecchio was traded via Twitter, and heard about the Kelly Olynyk and Ochai Agbaji deals when he was in the training room getting ready for Thursday morning shootaround. Now that they've been made, however, it's about moving on and making it work with yet another iteration of the Jazz.

"There are lineups that we haven't used and you're going to be playing around with guys that you haven't played before, and so it's gonna take some time but we're all good basketball players," he said. "We got a good group of guys that are ready to play, so we're gonna be coming in every day and just trying to work on that chemistry and get on the same page and really get that down."

Markkanen admits, though, that will be a process.

He said the team will need to spend more time in the film room and get extra reps with each other to get the familiarity back.

"It's normal that it's not perfect right off the bat, so just try to chip away just go in every day and learn something new every day," he said. "And that's all you can do."

He paused for just a beat and then quickly added: "Well, of course, you got to be trying to do it as fast as possible because we do have an important stretch of games coming up. So we definitely need everybody ready to go."

The deadline moves signaled the front office was practicing patience. They showed the organization was more than fine sacrificing middling success for a more long-term approach. Assets are currency for bigger deals, and they collected a couple more at the deadline. In a vacuum, that made sense.

The moves — as evidenced by Kevin Knox II being waived Friday — just didn't help the team now.

So have the ambitions of this season's team changed at all?

"No, I think just the competitive nature that we all got, we all go out there and try to win no matter who is in between those lines. So the mindset still stays the same," Markkanen said.

That mindset was why he stayed on the court long after practice had wrapped Friday, drilling post move after move.

"It's part of my game that got a lot of room to grow and that's the only way it happens," Markkanen said. "Obviously, end-of-game situations slow down a little bit and kind of trying to find ways to get a good look. That's going to be a good shot to use for me. So just trying to get better."

Trying to get better … no matter who is on the team.

"All we can do is to try to move forward and get better with the guys that we got here right now," Markkanen said.

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