Jazz All-Star Markkanen Talks Offseason Training While in Finland

During Lauri Markkanen's time this offseason serving in Finland, we've been able to get a few soundbites and glimpses of the All-Star since his military time has been underway. We saw a few pictures of Lauri in uniform floating around social media and also saw him accepting his MIP award on TNT in the middle of his stay overseas.

The Utah Jazz media was able to get ahold of Lauri once again in Finland and managed to release a short interview on Instagram for fans. Markkanen provides us with a bit of info as to how he's gone about conditioning and preparing so far for next season.

Here's what Markkanen told them:

"We shot a little hoops outside... we had an evening off after training, so just having some fun. We haven't really actually played, and [I'm] still taking some time off basketball and actually working out, so I'm not really stressing about that right now. It's been pretty casual"

Considering just coming off of a 66-game season winning Most Improved Player honors, as well as doing some routine military training at the moment, it's safe to say Markkanen has earned some time off.

With a long offseason ahead, Lauri instead can look to the entire summer ahead as an opportunity to improve his game. It will be then we'll most likely see him look to increase his workout intensity, once departed from his service duty.

Until that point, we'll have to wait a few months to see Markkanen take the floor once again, likely during the FIBA World Cup, as per his recent announcement concerning the tournament.

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