For someone mired in what many would consider a slump, Lauri Markkanen doesn't seem concerned at all.
And in the 21-year-old's opinion, he has no reason to be. Though Markkanen's ugly stretch of basketball in March continued in Tuesday's 123-107 loss to the Lakers, he's continued the same approach in practice, his confidence hasn't wavered and the shots he's taking - and, at the moment, not making - all feel good.
So Markkanen's answer when asked if he considers himself to be in a slump was resounding.
"No, I've had these before and I'm doing everything the way I (did) it before and it's been a couple games now and I'm trying not to look at it as a couple games. I'm trying to look at a little longer period and see if it's that bad. I regonize that it's not going in right now but I'm not putting my head down because of that."
Markkanen's confidence aside, the recent numbers indicate that he has in fact gone cold. In his past six games, including Tuesday's 4 of 17 shooting, Markkanen is shooting 31 percent from the field and has made just 9 of 40 3-point attempts - he was a career-worst 0 of 8 against the Lakers. He's failed to break 20 points in any of those games after reaching that figure in each of his previous 11 games, and his free throw attempts have dipped to just 3.5 per game after getting there 7.0 times per game in that 11-game stretch.
But Markkanen hasn't broken his routine. He's still constantly getting shots up before and after practice, he's watching his own film with assistant coach Dean Cooper and feels in rhythm on just about all the shots he's taking. In fact, Markkanen went as far to say that he's never felt out of rhythm and his shot has never felt "off," despite the recent struggles.
"I've been doing the same stuff so I know it'll turn around," he said. "I acknowledge that I'm not playing like I was in February but I'm going to keep working the way I do every day, because everything feels the same. It's just not going in right now."
NBA
Markkanen's six-game slide has come in the wake up of an incredible February (and first game of March) in which he averaged 26.5 points on 49 percent shooting, 2.5 made 3-pointers at a 36 percent clip and nearly 91 percent from the free throw line over an 11-game span. Teams have clearly keyed in on him as a go-to scorer, and he's received even more attention the past two games with Zach LaVine nursing a sore knee.
But that's life in the NBA for a franchise cornerstone. Much is being asked of Markkanen despite him having played 114 career games, and his high-usage role at such a young stage in his career has opened him up to criticism when he goes through these rough patches.
"To say something is wrong with him I think would be premature and not correct," Jim Boylen said after the game. "To say that we need him to play better for us to have a chance to win I think is the way to say it."
Markkanen's absurd February, in which he was a finalist for Eastern Conference Player of the Month, escalated his position in the spotlight. The reality is he's still just 21 years old and missed 10-and-a-half weeks at the start of the regular season with an injury to his shooting elbow. That Markkanen has come through that injury and played so well - he's still averaging 19.2 points and 9.0 rebounds this season - speaks more to the positives in his game than this current slump.
He's still learning and growing and is bound to go through some rough patches at this stage in his career. Second-year struggles are hardly uncommon: Jayson Tatum is averaging 13.8 points on 38 percent shooting in March, Donovan Mitchell shot 38 percent in December and Kyle Kuzma, who had 21 points on Tuesday, entered that game shooting less than 31 percent from deep in his last 15 games. Markkanen is simply going through what just about all second-year players go through, which is why he's hardly sweating this stretch.
"Of course its more fun to see them going in but like I’ve said, they all felt good," Markkanen said. "So I didn’t want to put my head down because I’m not making shots. I still believed the next shot was going on."