Chicago Bulls: 4 best players during the 2020 calendar year

3) Chicago Bulls who had the best 2020

The final three Bulls players on this list that had the best run during the 2020 calendar year with the team are all on the current roster this season. And the fourth-year former Arizona Wildcats power forward and the 23-year-old seven-footer Lauri Markkanen barely squeaked onto this list over the ex-Arkansas Razorbacks second-year center Daniel Gafford.

Waning efficiency from Gafford down the stretch last season and a limited role to start out the 2020-21 campaign allowed Markkanen to gain the edge on this list for the final spot among the Bulls current players.

Markkanen is off to a really hot start out of the gates for the 2020-21 regular season. He’s played in all three games for the Bulls so far this season (starting in all of them), and he’s averaged 29 minutes on the floor per game. Through three games, Markkanen averaged 20.0 points per game, 7.7 rebounds, 1.7 assists, 1.0 steals, and 0.3 blocks. And he’s shot an efficient 52.8 percent from the field, 47.6 percent from beyond the arc, and 80.0 percent from the free-throw line.

What also helped Markkanen’s case to make one of the spots on this list was the improvement that he found after the turn of the calendar year to 2020 last season. He was much better even in late December and January than he was in October and November.

If Markkanen continues this momentum into the turn of the calendar year from 2020 to 2021, he’ll be a highly sought after commodity once the final year of his rookie contract runs up. He’s set to be a restricted free agent come next offseason, and newly hired executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas is likely very interested in re-signing him when that time arrives.