Chicago Bulls: 3 players who regressed this season pre-hiatus
1. Lauri Markkanen, Power Forward
Markkanen is the Chicago Bulls franchise cornerstone that is having the most frustrating season out of any on the roster to date. He was supposed to be taking a leap to stardom that a lot of other big men will take in their third year. Even the Dallas Mavericks seven-footer and former New York Knicks big man Kristaps Porzingis made a big jump to stardom in his third year in the NBA.
However, the faults to Markkanen are once again partly due to poor scheming and usage thanks to the coaching staff and also partly due to the usual faults that he has. Markkanen missed more than a dozen games this season, mostly due to a pelvic injury that held him back throughout much of February and early March.
He has played in 50 games so far this season, while averaging 14.7 points per game, 6.3 rebounds, and 1.5 assists, while shooting 42.5 percent from the field, 34.4 percent from beyond the arc, and 82.4 percent from the charity stripe. His box plus/minus rating is down from -0.2 to -0.5 and his player efficiency rating is down from 17.1 to 14.3.
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The poor shooting performances that Markkanen put on display at times this season place a lot of the blame on Boylen’s shoulders. He needs to get Markkanen more open looks since he is a good rhythm shooter from range. Markkanen’s total number of field goals, three point attempts, and free-throw attempts are all down this season compared to last. His shooting percentages are only slightly down, though.