Bulls: Markkanen’s Return Losing Steam as Team Charges On
In a prove-it season, the writing on the wall’s beginning to show
It’s been real, Lauri Markkanen.
Thought to be the hook on which the Chicago Bulls’ rebuild would hang when he arrived four years ago, Markkanen has been neither the reason they’ve sputtered at times this season nor the driving force behind their recent takeoff.
He instead exists somewhere on the runway, still miles from expectations and even further away from any justification to be paid any more than what Arturas Karnisovas was willing to offer when negotiations for a contract extension broke down in December.
That doesn’t mean another team’s exec won’t see Markkanen’s injury history—he missed 59 games over the course of his first three seasons and will have watched another 20 from the bench by the all-star break—and look the other way while sliding a sizable offer sheet in his direction this summer (soon-to-be 24-year-old 7-footers who can stretch the floor still kindle a twinkle of the eye, especially when the free agent pool around them has shallowed).
But when that day comes, Karnisovas should thank Markkanen for his services and tell him not to let that “E” for effort hit him on his way out of town.
Simply put, Markkanen is no longer essential to this operation.
If his own unavailability and inconsistency weren’t evidence enough, the repurposing of Thad Young within Billy Donovan’s offense and the vaulted ceiling of Patrick Williams have built an open-and-shut case.
The proof is in the coagulating pudding.
For a team whose only gravity-altering playmaker is newly minted all-star Zach LaVine, Young has been a bombshell.
His poise, facilitation and craftiness have translated to the Bulls boasting a plus-7.1 net rating with him on the floor as opposed to a minus-5.9 net rating with him on the bench. The wedge between those two numbers grows even wider when Young is (plus-8.3) and isn’t (minus-8.2) on the court with LaVine. (By comparison, the Bulls are a minus-5.8 with Markkanen on the court and a plus-2.7 when he’s off). The likelihood that Young is still playing off LaVine when nationally televised games again become the norm is slim. But the 14-year vet has made a long-lasting impact on the players who do figure to be here.
Markkanen 'highly unlikely' to return before All-Star break (NBC Sports Chicago)
Like Williams.
Statistically speaking, the 19-year-old hasn’t lit up the box scores like Markkanen’s been prone to do on occasion. As a matter of fact, Williams isn’t even currently on the level of some of his fellow rookies—for instance, 19 of his draft classmates have gaudier player efficiency ratings—but few can match his projection as the kind of dual threat anchor for whom New Balance sneaker deals are given.
It is, after all, that brand’s pitchman, two-time Finals MVP and Los Angeles Clipper Kawhi Leonard to whom Williams draws the most flattering comparison. And while player forecasts are nothing more than overheard wishful thoughts, Williams’ feels much more realistic three months into his career than those that envisioned Markkanen to be the next Kristaps Porzingis or Dirk Nowitzki 184 games ago.
Markkanen isn’t responsible for those shadows looming so largely over his head.
Nor is he on the hook for having played for three different head coaches—one of whom likely sowed the seeds of his identity crisis last season—or the games he’s missed in his career due to either injury or health and safety protocols.
But whereas back spasms, ankle and shoulder sprains, and a global pandemic have been out of his control, Markkanen did have a say-so in his game-to-game aggressiveness and production.
That the Bulls were 5-9 with Markkanen in the lineup this season is bad. That they’ve won five of their last six games and are 10-7 without him is worse. That they’ve also secured what would be the sixth-best net rating (4.9) in the league just behind the defending champion Los Angeles Lakers since he was sidelined February 5 is ugly.
When Markkanen is on he looks every bit the part of the team’s second-most potent weapon. But when he’s off, he’s as useful as a knife in a gunfight.
LaVine has become as lethal a scorer as there is in the league. But in order to make headway in the Eastern Conference against the likes of James Harden, Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving in Brooklyn, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Khris Middleton and Jrue Holiday in Milwaukee or Joel Embiid, Ben Simmons and Tobias Harris in Philadelphia, the Bulls need at least another all-star caliber player.
And Markkanen just isn’t that.
Another team can pay his price to figure that out.
Drew Stevens is a Senior Writer for WARR Media, he lives and works in Chicago