Chicago Bulls: Can Lauri Markkanen make a Nikola Jokic-like leap?
Much-needed sweeping changes to the Chicago Bulls front office are well underway with Arturas Karnisovas taking over as the new lead executive.
There’s a lot of new hope and energy surrounding the Chicago Bulls right now after the hiring of former Denver Nuggets general manager Arturas Karnisovas as the next executive vice president of basketball operations. Karnisovas is set to replace John Paxson in the Bulls front office. His next step will be finding which general manager candidate he wants to bring aboard to replace Gar Forman.
The Bulls got rid of Forman on April 13 after he spent more than 20 years with the organization. General manager was the last role he held prior to seeing the door. But it seemed like he took a backseat to Paxson on most of the decision making in the last couple years. It now appears that the GarPax-era in the Bulls front office is officially behind us.
Phew.
But the moves that Karnisovas makes in the immediate future to build up his organizational structure will be key to making sure the rebuild gets back charted on course for success. The Bulls started to see their rebuild collapse on itself in its third year. Michael and Jerry Reinsdorf made the needed sweeping front office changes maybe just before it was too late.
Furthermore, after Karnisovas is able to reconfigure the Bulls front office from the top-down, then he must turn his attention to piecing together the coaching staff and roster to his liking. Head coach Jim Boylen could be facing increasing pressure on his hot seat, and various players could start hearing the names amid trade rumors and discussion.
One name that sticks right in the thick of discussions surrounding future Bulls roster construction is third-year power forward Lauri Markkanen. In a season where the Bulls needed Markkanen to make some big strides in his development, he wound up taking a step back. His string of nagging injury troubles continued prior to the season hiatus and his scoring averages and shooting percentages are down nearly across the board in his third year.
What can Karnisovas do you help Markkanen improve from here on out you might ask.
He could turn to the model of success he found with his two brightest stars in the Mile High City.
The comparison between what Karnisovas did during his tenure with the Nuggets with the dynamic duo of star big man Nikola Jokic and combo guard Jamal Murray will be often discussed in the Bulls camp. A lot of the strengths that Jokic brings to the table were once signs of promise for Markkanen.
There are a few skills that Jokic has that just don’t seem to be in the toolbelt for Markkanen. The main skill that Jokic has that is really unmatched by any other center in the NBA is his court vision. His career assist rate above 30 percent is off the charts. Jokic is also very effective at getting to the free-throw line (free-throw attempt rate of better than 29 percent for his career).
The latter of those two strengths for Jokic is one that Markkanen could match. Markkanen is actually much more fleet-of-foot than Jokic. He could use that to his advantage to drive the lane more often and draw contract to get to the charity stripe. Boylen didn’t allow him to do that enough in the season that is currently placed on pause. The career free-throw attempt rate for Markkanen sits around 22 percent.
If Markkanen drives the lane more often, then his assist and free-throw numbers should go way up. Markkanen drew less than 70 shooting fouls this season and is on pace for a career-low in And-1 free-throw attempts (only 10 so far this year). Open up his game with more opportunities to find space off the perimeter and there will be a new world of possibilities.
What Karnisovas also did to help Jokic out in Denver was add a ton of weapons offensively off the bench and bring in a solid perimeter supporting cast on defense. Denver has a lot of good perimeter defenders that can also offer at least some offensive value. That is one area where the Bulls are truly lacking.
The two points so far that Markkanen can do with Karnisovas at the helm that he couldn’t with GarPax is get a better supporting cast on defense (especially off the perimeter) and be encouraged to drive the lane more often. Opposing defenders need to respect the threat that Lauri brings as a sharpshooter from downtown.
Jokic shot around just 31 percent from beyond the arc this season. At his peak, Lauri could be hitting his three-point shots at a rate of around 37 or 38 percent. Get him in rhythm with more confidence and ample floor spacing on a regular basis, and Markkanen will improve in a number of facets of his offensive game.
If center Wendell Carter Jr. and Lauri can start to mesh better together in the frontcourt, and the Bulls get better through and through on the perimeter, his game should really start to open up. This is a huge arrival for the development of Lauri to have Karnisovas as the new executive vice president of basketball operations.
Before the novel coronavirus pandemic-induced NBA season hiatus that was put in place last month, Markkanen had played in 50 games. He averaged 14.7 points per game, 6.3 rebounds, 1.5 assists, and 0.8 steals, while shooting 42.5 percent from the field and 34.4 percent from beyond the arc. His game should get much better with a more competent front office being configured.