After losing 4-2 to the Boston Celtics in the 2016-17 NBA playoffs, John Paxson, the general manager of the Chicago Bulls at that time, was not satisfied with how far the Bulls had come. He ended up making the decision to rebuild, trading Jimmy Butler and the 16th overall pick in the upcoming draft to the Minnesota Timberwolves for Kris Dunn, Zach Lavine, and the 7th overall pick. In the 2017 NBA Draft, the Bulls selected Lauri Markkanen with the 7th pick that they acquired from their trade with the Timberwolves.
The Fiery Start for the Markksman
The years Lauri Markkanen played for the Bulls so far were very rocky. He is averaging 15.6 points a game with 44/37/84 shooting splits, 7.6 rebounds, and 1.2 assists in his career. He was very solid his rookie year, averaging 15.2 points a game and making the all-rookie first team along with Kyle Kuzma and future stars Ben Simmons, Jayson Tatum, and Donovan Mitchell. Many Bulls and NBA fans became excited with this great season performance by Lauri, dubbing him “The Marksman” along with other names after surpassing Damian Lillard to become the fastest rookie to make 100 career 3-pointers in NBA history.
snow mamba, the finisher, the kraken, the man the myth the markkanen, the Finnish mamba, the marksman, the king of the north, the nordic mamba, the big Finnish, lauri legend, the snowman…. I could go on
— Rusty Buckets 🇵🇸 (@RustyBUCKETS321) July 7, 2018
The next season he skyrocket in his play and averaged 18.7 points a game, 9 rebounds, 1.4 assists, with 43/36/87 splits, and having eight total 30-point games. This outstanding performance had NBA fans thinking that Markkanen’s stardom was imminent. But over the next 2 years, especially the 2021 season he was a let down to the Bulls fans who had hyped up his previous seasons. So what happened?
The Fall Off
The 2019-20 season was truly disappointing for Lauri Markkanen. He battled injuries and illnesses all year, and dropped to 14.7 points, 6.3 rebounds, 1.5 assists per game with a career low of 42/34/82 splits. He’d been battling injuries his whole career but it seemed like that year they really got to him. Following this poor performance for the Bulls, having a 22-60 record, Paxson was fired and Artūras Karnišovas took over in the executive position. For the 2020-21 season Lauri started off well averaging 19.0 points, 6.1 rebounds, and even had two 30-point games (one against the Trailblazers and one against the Knicks) in the first 23 games of the season. Then he got hit with another injury, a shoulder sprain which caused him to miss a couple weeks. That moment was when people really started questioning his future on the team in the upcoming off-season.
https://dawindycity.com/2021/02/09/chicago-bulls-lauri-markkanen-injury-helps/
There were many rumors that he was being shopped at the trade deadline, but nothing was done so he stayed on the team for the remainder of the season. He finished this season with a career low 13.6 points, 7.1 rebounds, and 0.9 assists with 48/40/82 splits. On the surface these splits don’t seem too bad for him, but he was very inconsistent with his shooting. He also took less shots most likely due to losing his confidence causing him to have a better shooting percentage. In addition to that, he didn’t play very good defense, constantly made questionable basketball decisions, and barely played 50 games. For these reasons, he will be graded a C- on the season. Many of these problems might have come from coach Billy Donovan experimenting with Lauri’s role, switching him from power forward to center, small forward and even putting him on the bench, but you can only give Lauri so much lenience. Most Bulls fans don’t see Arturas Karnišovas keeping Markkanen for the 2021-22 season or seasons to come, even though Karnišovas has said nothing but positive things about the player. Which brings up the question… What should the Bulls do with him?
The 2021 Off-Season
Lauri Markkanen is a restricted free agent. That means every team that offers him a contract the Bulls can match, which allows the Bulls to get value for Markkanen if they don’t want to keep him. One of the Bulls’ biggest needs is a point guard alongside star player Zach Lavine, preferably defensively. Coby White has played and adjusted to his roles well this season, but with the recent trade for former Orlando Magic player Nikola Vučevič, the Bulls seem to be in win now mode and may not wait for Coby White to develop into the player they want him to be. They could possibly do a sign-and-trade and get who they want that way. Sources claim that Lauri Markkanen has said that he would like to join the Dallas Mavericks, where he’d play alongside Kristaps Porzingis and superstar Luka Dončič.
https://twitter.com/ChiSportUpdates/status/1396106397348155392?s=20
The Bulls could try and target Jalen Brunson, who is coming up on his 4th season next year averaging 12.6 points, 3.4 rebounds, 3.5 assists, and having a defensive rating of 115.6 this season. A fan favorite that Bulls fans want in the upcoming free agency is Lonzo Ball, who is also a restricted free agent. He averaged 14.6 points, 4.8 rebounds, 5.7 assists, and had a defensive rating of 112.7 with 82 steals on the year. Lauri could be a stretch four that can replace veteran forward James Johnson if he leaves or even replace Steven Adams and join Zion Williams and Brandon Ingram in their starting front court. The Pelicans do need a shooter, but they might not want to give up Ball so easily with the Knicks being another team in high interest of him. Lauri’s future is uncertain, but we will see what happens in the offseason.
