NBA PLAYERS WHO INSTANTLY GOT BETTER AFTER LEAVING THEIR TEAM

Players who instantly got better after leaving their team. Back in 2017 the Chicago Bulls drafted Laurie Markinan with the 7th overall pick, and as a rookie he averaged 15 points and 7 rebounds, made the all-rookie first team and had people comparing him to Dirk, but then Chicago hired Jim Boylan as head coach, and everything fell apart. You see, Boylan Cup Markinan's touches in half from 80 per game down to just 40 and forced him into a spot-up shooting role. When Markinan confronted him about it, Boylan told him to just focus on getting defensive rebounds, and his scoring drop from 18 points a game all the way down to 14. Then, in 2021, the Bulls benched him after trading for Nicolav Luchovich without even giving him a proper role, so Markinan demanded a fresh start and got shipped to Cleveland for Derek Jones Jr., and a protected first round pick. But Cleveland wasn't much better, because the Cavs played him out of position at small-forward next to two other big men, and he averaged just 14 points in a limited role. Then, in September of 2022, Cleveland traded him to the Utah Jazz as part of the Donovan Mitchell deal, and nobody expected much from him since the Jazz were supposed to be tanking. But what happened next shocked the entire league. In his very first season in Utah, Markinan averaged 25 points and 8 rebounds on nearly 50-40 90 shooting splits, made his first All-Star team became the first player in NBA history with 203s and 100 dunks in the same season, and won the most improved player award.