Utah Jazz star Lauri Markkanen is better than New York Knicks star Julius Randle.
How is this a debate? Jazz Lead, a Utah Jazz fan account on Twitter, asked a simple question on Saturday. Who was better? They then pitted the Jazz’s very own Lauri Markkanen against New York Knicks All-Star Julius Randle. It was an odd question as neither man plays the same position as the other.
Sure, both men are or have been power forwards at some point in their career but that’s where the similarities end. Markkanen is now more of a small forward, ever since his time in Cleveland, and Randle, while an All-Star, is as inconsistent as they come.
It’s an odd question because who really wanted to know the answer to this question, but hey, we’re open to answering it. The question’s not even hard to answer; and sorry to say Knick fans, that answer is Markkanen.
Who's better? pic.twitter.com/P7AdhIRPin
— Jazz Lead (@JazzLead) July 29, 2023
They’re both former All-Stars and both former winners of the NBA Most Improved. Markkanen won it in 2023, with Randle winning it in 2021. Beyond that, that’s largely where their similarities end – save for the fact they were both lottery picks.
Markkanen and Randle are both good rebounders, with Randle often being the number one rebounder on the team he’s on, while Markkanen is often playing away from the paint; limiting the number of potential rebounds he gets.
Neither is all that adept at taking the ball up the court, but Randle has shown to be a good low-post passer; something Markkanen is getting better at.
Markkanen is the better shooter and pure scorer. While Randle can have an inflated field goal percentage at times due to his proximity to the basket. Randle’s best shooting years from the 2016-2017 season to the 2019-2020 season saw Randle take 45% of his shots from within three feet of the basket.
Markkanen has averaged just 23% from within three feet of the basket. All the while Markannen has done most of his shooting from the three-point line over the last three years, that was until 2022-2023, where he was able to embrace his skills and not stay limited to just catching and shooting threes.
The question wasn’t who’s had a better career, but who’s better now. Compared to their past seasons alone, Markkanen had more points per game, (25.6) than Randles (25.1), on much better shooting efficiency. Randle did have more rebounds, but Markkanen also played small forward for most of his season.
If you look at their offensive and defensive box-plus-minus, plus their total BPM, Markkanen has a 1.7 OBPM for his career compared to Randle’s 1.1, though Randle has a higher DPBM for his career, -0.2, to -0.9. But that’s a historical look.
We’re only worried about current events, as the question is about who’s better now, not all time. That means Markkanen’s BPM is 3.8 gives him yet another edge, as his advanced BPM metric is higher than Randle’s at 3.7.
To go even further, for 2022-2023, FiveThirtyEight gave Markkanen a +3.5 for his offensive RAPTOR score and a +1.0 for his defensive RAPTOR score. Julius got a +2.5 for his offensive RAPTOR and a -1.0 for his defensive RAPTOR.
Randle is a good player, and someone who can be a vocal point of a playoff offense, but is he better than Markkanen? No, the margin between the two isn’t huge. The fact is, the two don’t play the same position, nor are they put in the same offensive schemes, so it’s hard to say that Randle is more talented than Markkanen just because some of his stats are gaudier.
It’s also unfair to say that Markkanen is better than Randle, as Randle has shown a much more dynamic offense aside from shooting. It’s far likelier that the answer is that it’s a wash, and no real discernible pick can be made, but with the offense geared toward shooters now more than ever, it’s still fair to say that Markkanen is the guy most teams would want purely on Markkanen’s shooting alone.