Chicago Bulls: 3 players suffering the most from Jim Boylen as coach

3. Lauri Markkanen, Power Forward

Although he is currently dealing with a pelvic injury that should hold him out for most of the rest of the regular season, the Chicago Bulls third-year power forward Lauri Markkanen definitely didn’t get any benefit from Boylen’s presence. Markkanen had his worst year in the NBA to date as Boylen gradually moved his scheme into play in the Windy City.

So far this season, Markkanen is averaging 15.0 points per game, 6.5 rebounds, and 1.5 assists, while shooting 42.4 percent from the field and 34.4 percent from beyond the arc. That all amounts to Markkanen posting a player efficiency rating at a career worst 14.4 and just 2.5 win shares. Most of his shooting percentages are at career worsts this season too.

Not all the blame of Markkanen’s struggles at the outset of the regular season can be placed directly on Boylen’s shoulders. But the fact that he’s not getting all that many looks from three-point range and the multi-ball handler system doesn’t get him all that much floor spacing to get in rhythm is a lot of the fault of the head coach.

Much like a good portion of this Bulls roster around Markkanen, he’s suffering also from a lack of cohesion that was caused by the inept team-building abilities of John Paxson and Gar Forman. The much needed front office shakeups have to be made to a certain degree during the upcoming offseason to help salvage the development of franchise cornerstones like Markkanen.