1. Where is the rebuild headed?
Since the Bulls wouldn’t have any of the pieces of their roster at the moment that are considered key pieces of the young core hitting free agency this coming offseason, they don’t have many major re-signing decisions to make right away. But they do have a few other contract extension and trade decisions to make prior to the NBA Draft and start of this free agent cycle.
A big looming question for this offseason individually in the Bulls camp will be what to do about Markkanen’s rookie contract. Next offseason, Markkanen’s rookie deal will be up. He’s eligible for a sizable contract extension this offseason, but he hasn’t proved that he’s worth anything close to max level money yet.
This was supposed to be the big season where Markkanen took that leap to stardom. He actually had his biggest statistical regression since originally entering the NBA back in 2017. In 50 games played so far this season, Markkanen averaged 14.7 points per game, 6.3 rebounds, 1.5 assists, and 0.8 steals, while shooting 42.5 percent from the field, 34.4 percent from beyond the arc, and 82.4 percent from the charity stripe.
The other key part of the decision making for the Bulls this coming offseason in terms of piecing together the next phase of the cornerstones of the franchise is what to do about LaVine. Clearly LaVine had a big season so far, nearly notching his first career All-Star selection, but there’s still a lot of impending question marks about his ability to be the primary scorer on this team.