Despite not playing against a lot of NBA talent at EuroBasket 2017, Chicago Bulls rookie Lauri Markkanen had the look and the game of a potential star for Team Finland. Like with many prospects, a good amount of hype will follow him.
If you didn’t get a chance to watch Lauri Markkanen play during his six games with his native Finland bunch for EuroBasket 2017 in the last couple weeks, let’s just say that he wasn’t nicknamed the “Finnish Michael Jordan” for anything.
I’m likely the only person on the planet that called him that because he wore No. 23 for Finland during the tournament, but Markkanen looked like a potential NBA star with his performance.
Even with a weird game in the EuroBasket’s Round of 16 that resulted in Finland’s elimination from the tournament where Markkanen only scored four points on six shots in just over 20 minutes of action, the 20-year-old rookie could be one of the few bright spots for the Bulls this season and beyond.
In Finland’s six games (4-2), Markkanen averaged 18.8 points on 53.3 percent shooting (47.8 percent on 3.8 3-point attempts) and 5.7 rebounds per game, including four of those six games where Markkanen scored at least 20 points.
Although the European tournament included current NBA players such as Miami Heat guard Goran Dragic and New York Knicks big man Kristaps Porzingis, EuroBasket 2017 didn’t exactly include a heaping amount of NBA talent for Markkanen to showcase his skills. Still, you’d really be nit-picking him if you watched Markkanen’s games for Finland and not think that the kid can play.
As Markkanen enters his first season in the NBA, he’s coming into a less-than-ideal scenario. The Bulls are going to be bad. Really bad. There’s already a few pieces in place in front of Markkanen in the form of Bobby Portis, Cristiano Felicio, Robin Lopez and potentially Nikola Mirotic if he and the Bulls can ever come to some sort of agreement to keep him in Chicago.
And, there’s going to be some unrealistic expectations for Markkanen entering year one.
After all, Markkanen was acquired in the trade that sent former Bulls two-way star Jimmy Butler and the 16th overall pick to the Minnesota Timberwolves for former lottery picks Zach LaVine, Kris Dunn and the No. 7 overall pick in this June’s draft, which turned out to be Markkanen.
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There’s more expectations that will be put on Markkanen this season unfairly and that’s the fact that the Bulls drafted another power forward — who can and probably will play center this season — that they didn’t even call in for a workout or hardly speak with during the pre-draft process.
“He’s going to be portrayed as some kind of Toni Kukoc and he’s not even going to be close to that! The Bulls just wasted another pick on a Euro guy!”
“The Bulls got a steal! He’s going to average over 20 a night just like he did in EuroBasket for the most part and take the Bulls to the playoffs next year!”
Whether you’re on the positive or negative side of the Lauri Markkanen spectrum, there’s going to be a buzz surrounding him this season and as his pro career moves along, seeing as he and two other young guys were traded for one of the best 15 players in the world today.
The key with Markkanen is to maintain a balanced approach to what he is and what he could be for the Bulls.
It’s unfair to think that he’s going to be even better than Toni Kukoc or light-years better than other Euro prospects like Porzingis himself and Denver Nuggets big man Nikola Jokic just based off his EuroBasket 2017 performance.
It’s also unfair to think that he’s going to be a bust simply off the fact that he’s from Finland, played one year in college at Arizona and that international prospects have had their fair share of struggles in the NBA when they’ve come over adjusting to the physicality and speed of the NBA game.
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The Bulls need Markkanen to become a star in terms of their “plan” coming to fruition (other than signing a big-time free agent or too with that flexibility that Gar Forman likes to tout). Whether you think he’s going to be good or bad, the hype won’t be validated for either side until we know for sure.