Chicago Bulls: 3 trade destinations most beneficial for Lauri Markkanen

Where could the Chicago Bulls turn if they wanted to find the most beneficial deal for all sides involved in a potential Lauri Markkanen trade?

The Chicago Bulls find themselves actually in a pretty good situation heading into this cycle of free agency, and with the fourth overall pick in the 2020 NBA Draft Lottery. With the front office personnel and coaching staff changes that the Bulls made from the top-down this offseason, there’s a lot more to be excited about for next season compared to last. But the Bulls still have a lot of work to do in terms of figuring out the look of this roster heading into the 2020-21 season.

The Bulls finished up the shortened 2019-20 regular season with a record of 22-43, good for 11th place in the final Eastern Conference standings. They didn’t really take much of a step forward during the 2019-20 season, under the direction of now former head coach Jim Boylen, thanks to multiple factors.

First and foremost, the Bulls management/ownership didn’t make the necessary changes to the front office and/or coaching staff to help this rebuild take a legit step forward in its third year. And the second big reason was the lack of real progression from most of the key pieces of this young core.

Three players that really stuck out in this Bulls young core that didn’t make many strides in the season that was were small forward Chandler Hutchison, center Wendell Carter Jr., and power forward Lauri Markkanen. While there were significant margins of improvement for rookie point guard Coby White and shooting guard Zach LaVine down the stretch during the 2019-20 season, the rest of the pieces of the young core have to catch up.

If the Bulls did decide to move on from a key piece of their young core like Markkanen this offseason, what would be the landing spots that would be most beneficial for his development (not necessarily just to Chicago’s benefit)?