Chicago Bulls: Power ranking the 5 best players
By Luke Askew
2. Lauri Markkanen
If you would’ve told me during the 2017 draft that I would consider Lauri Markkanen to be the second-best Bull going into the 2018-19 season, I would’ve thought you were crazy.
Last year, whenever Markkanen was on the court, he was clearly the most consistent scoring option on offense and should’ve been considered the go-to guy. There were a lot of bumps in the road last season for the Bulls in terms of figuring out Markkanen’s ceiling, however.
Zach LaVine’s return from injury, Kris Dunn’s injuries and the Bulls desperately trying to lose as many games as possible really put a cap on Lauri’s rookie season – and he still managed to make the All-Rookie first team.
Had there been some consistency with the lineup or even if they were trying to win games (which I’m glad they weren’t), Markkanen’s rookie numbers probably would’ve been way better.
Markkanen only played in 29.7 minutes per game. While that’s not a really small number, it could’ve been much higher. For reference, fellow rookie Lonzo Ball played 34.2 minutes per game for the Los Angeles Lakers.
This year – now that the Bulls will actually be trying to win games – I expect Markkanen to see an uptick in minutes as well as shot opportunities.
Markkanen is the second best Bull and he’s 21 years old. Bulls fans should be happy about this.