Chicago Bulls: Keep feeding Lauri Markkanen the ball

Although he had a poor night shooting from the field in the Chicago Bulls loss to the Bucks, Lauri Markkanen needs to keep getting the ball often.

A 111-98 loss at home at the United Center on Jan. 20 at the hands of the Central Division opponent Milwaukee Bucks saw the Chicago Bulls let a solid first half lead slip in the final 24 minutes yet again. The Bulls held strong on defense for most of the game against the reigning NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Bucks, but he and small forward Khris Middleton put them away in the fourth quarter. There are a couple of Bulls players that can be faulted for the loss.

But you can’t really sweat a 16-29 Bulls team losing to the NBA’s best team, record-wise, in the Bucks. The Bucks might be the title favorites by a good margin coming out of the Eastern Conference this season. The Philadelphia 76ers haven’t quite lived up to the hype so far. And while the Boston Celtics are a worthy opponent, they don’t seem to be on the same level as Giannis and the Bucks right now.

At the moment, the Bulls sit more than four games behind the Brooklyn Nets for the final spot in the playoff picture in the East. The Orlando Magic are moving ahead of the Nets in the standings now, so the Bulls are even further behind them.

What the Bulls need to be focusing on right now is taking this difficult back half of the 2019-20 regular season schedule one game at a time. There’s still young pieces of this core in the third year of the rebuild that need development. Head coach Jim Boylen has not done a great job developing this Bulls young core to this point.

One trend that was positive to see from the Bulls on Jan. 20 was the volume of shots from the field that power forward Lauri Markkanen, despite a poor night in terms of efficiency. He shot just 2-of-11 from the field and a putrid 0-of-7 from beyond the arc. But the point is that he got a lot of looks even though he was struggling to find his rhythm.

The only way the Bulls are going to take a step forward in Lauri’s third year in the NBA is if he’s a key focal point of the offense. Markkanen is a rhythm shooter and not playing with confidence this season, so it could take time and produce inconsistent results along the way, but he needs to be getting the bulk of the field goal attempts for this team.

On the average night, if Markkanen and shooting guard Zach LaVine aren’t the two most frequently used pieces on offense for the Bulls there’s a problem. They will have off nights, but they are the two most talented players on this team and have likely the brightest future of the more significant pieces of the young core.

The Bulls need to live by the Markkanen and die by the Markkanen by now. Their playoff hopes are dwindling fast, and instilling confidence in Markkanen heading into the offseason is key. If he’s not the answer they’re looking for, then figure it out this way instead of burying his minutes and role among the other players on this roster.