Chicago Bulls: 4 biggest negatives at halfway point of 2019-20 season

2. Lauri Markkanen still hasn’t fully found his groove

The aforementioned Markkanen was one of the biggest disappointments for the Chicago Bulls coming out of the gates this season. He was not just a disappointment for the Bulls, but a lot of the NBA was wondering what was wrong with him. Just about almost every major area of statistical production was down for him in the first 20 games of the regular season.

But Markkanen did see an uptick in his play of late. Since about early December, Markkanen finally had that switch flip and he was getting more and more productive. He’s now shooting around 35 percent from three-point range on the season and 42.3 percent from the field while scoring just over 15 points per game.

There’s now more confidence in Markkanen’s game of late than there was early in the regular season. Around late December and early January, Markkanen was seeing double-digit looks from three-point range multiple nights. The impact on that was him scoring at least 18-20 points per game in each of those outings where he got double-digit looks from downtown.

But Boylen seems to be drawing back the amount of looks that Markkanen is getting from beyond the arc of late. Drawing back the role of Markkanen in making this offense run is a complete negative for Boylen and the Bulls. They need to make sure that Markkanen’s confidence stays high throughout the second half of the regular season.