Just ahead of the start of the NBA preseason slate and Training Camp for the Chicago Bulls, Lauri Markkanen opened up on his 2019-20 aspirations.
To put it lightly, the Chicago Bulls dragged their fans through the mud for the past two seasons. But dragging this fan base through the mud came for good reason since this rebuild was needed after all the drama surrounding small forward Jimmy Butler, shooting guard Dwyane Wade, and point guard Rajon Rondo under former Chicago Bulls head coach Fred Hoiberg.
However, a new piece of this Bulls rebuild that should be taking center stage on his rise to NBA stardom in his third season is Finnish power forward Lauri Markkanen. Where should the mindset of Markkanen be heading into the 2019-20 regular season?
The Bulls have a lot on the line given an actually successful offseason of roster moves from John Paxson and Gar Forman.
While I could argue that the Bulls are a legitimate playoff contender this coming season, there are also many reasons for doubt. Recently extended head coach Jim Boylen has yet to prove that can do anything close to succeeding with this team in the Central Division. The problem with assuming that Boylen is a bad catch is the lack of sample size from last season.
For most of Boylen’s tenure as the interim head coach last season, he was working with a top end G-League level roster. That’s not anything that most NBA head coaches could even win 30 games with. So this is his first real opportunity to make headway in the Eastern Conference standings.
Another reason why Bulls fans could have doubt heading into the upcoming regular season is all the rough injury history this franchise saw for the past four or five years. Markkanen, shooting guard Zach LaVine, point guard Kris Dunn, and center Wendell Carter Jr. all miss extended periods of time due to various injury issues last season.
What evidence is there that the Bulls are going to be any healthier heading into the coming season? Carter Jr. already had surgery on a sports hernia injury back in July. Second-year small forward Chandler Hutchison also a hamstring injury recently that could hold him out of Training Camp.
However, in an interview with NBC Sports that was released on Sep. 29, Markkanen opened up on his playoff aspirations with the Bulls this season.
When asked about how he felt about the playoff aspirations for the Bulls this season, Markkanen stated: “that’s the goal”. Which that should be the obvious answer to that question.
But he also stated, “it’s a bummer”, when asked about his feelings on missing the playoffs for the last two seasons. He needs to take his game to a new level this coming season for the Bulls to have a realistic shot at a good spot by season’s end in the East and Central Division.
But those last two seasons were his first two in the NBA. Markkanen had injury issues of his own and growing pains trying to iron out his game consistently on both ends of the floor. In his first two seasons in the NBA, Markkanen only played in 120 games. Granted it could’ve been worse.
In his first two seasons with the Bulls, Markkanen averaged 16.7 points per game, 8.2 rebounds, and 1.3 assists. He also tallied a total of 6.1 win shares. Markkanen will take that production into his third season with the Bulls and Boylen starting with the tip off to the preseason slate on Oct. 7 against the Milwaukee Bucks at home.