Younger players struggling No. 2: Lauri Markkanen
One player that came out of the gates hot this season for Donovan and the Bulls but hasn’t played that well of late is the seven-footer and 23-year-old power forward Lauri Markkanen. This former Arizona Wildcat and fourth-year big man Markkanen needs to be better for the Bulls if the frontcourt rotation is to perform at maximum efficiency.
Markkanen is just too important to the construction of the rotation as it stands now, at least when he’s healthy, for him not to be playing at a high level at least on a semi-consistent basis. But throughout much of his career to date, consistency and staying healthy on a regular basis was not a strong suit of Markkanen.
The real problem now for Markkanen and the Bulls is that he’s not in rhythm shooting from the field, specifically from beyond the arc, and his defensive play is getting even worse. The Bulls have really struggled on the defensive end of the floor for much of the season thus far. And their altered roster post-deadline is definitely not equipped to improve that much on that end of the floor down the stretch.
Markkanen is now down to shooting well below 40 percent from beyond the arc and around 47 percent from the field. Before he recovered from an upper-body injury pre-All-Star Break, Markkanen was shooting over 49 percent from the field and around 43 percent from beyond the arc.
In the month of March alone, Markkanen is shooting his lowest percentages from the field and beyond the arc. He’s shooting 43 percent from the field and 36 percent from beyond the arc this month, which are closer to the level of production he had during the 2019-20 campaign. He’s also got an offensive rating below 110 for the first time this season in March.