There’s a whole lot of discussion going on around the Chicago Bulls fourth-year power forward Lauri Markkanen at the moment. The 24-year-old seven-footer and former Arizona Wildcat has not played too well for first-year head coach Billy Donovan and the Bulls since he was moved to a reserve role post-All-Star Break. This could create one of the latest interesting Bulls rumors ahead of next offseason.
A lot of question marks remain for the Bulls’ new front office regime as to whether they will keep Lauri around heading into next offseason. Markkanen is currently in the midst of the final year of his rookie contract, thus he will enter the restricted free agent market come this summer.
Since Markkanen is not playing all that well of late, there doesn’t seem like much of a chance that he is in the significant future plans for this franchise. First-year executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas and general manager Marc Eversley had the chance to hand Markkanen a contract extension last offseason but decided to pass on that.
Now, according to a report from A. Sherrod Blakely of Bleacher Report on April 14, there is looming interest coming from legendary head coach Gregg Popovich and the San Antonio Spurs in pursuing Markkanen next offseason. That could be way of a sign-and-trade deal or just signing him off of the restricted free agent market in general.
More on the latest Bulls rumors concerning Lauri Markkanen
Here’s more on what this BR piece had to say on the matter of the Spurs’ interest in pursuing Markkanen in the near future.
"It remains to be seen if Markkanen will accept a reserve role beyond this season or pursue a more prominent role elsewhere.The pool of teams that will have the salary-cap space to make a run at Markkanen is limited, but multiple executives and scouts anticipate the San Antonio Spurs will make a strong offer this summer."
There’s not really much optimism in general concerning the direction of this Bulls franchise as they currently ride a five-game losing streak following another tough loss at the hands of the Memphis Grizzlies at home on April 16. The Bulls now hold a record of 22-33 and are quickly slipping out of even the play-in tournament picture in the Eastern Conference.
Although, Markkanen is not really helping their case in the absence of star shooting guard Zach LaVine. With LaVine set to at least miss the next few games due to the league’s health and safety protocol, Markkanen needs to step up into the spotlight.
Markkanen is really struggling in most areas of his game through nine outings in the month of April. He’s averaged just 7.6 points per game in April, 4.0 rebounds, 1.0 assists, 0.2 steals, and 0.1 blocks. And Markkanen shot 48.1 percent from the field, 37.9 percent from beyond the arc, and 87.5 percent from the free-throw line.
That was good for Markkanen to register just a 108 offensive rating, putrid 119 defensive rating, but still a solid true shooting percentage north of 61.
Maybe the Spurs feel they can do something to turn the game of Markkanen around heading into next offseason. This wouldn’t be the first time that the Spurs took a potent big man that wasn’t doing well elsewhere and turned him into a solid rotation player.
Next up for Markkanen and the Bulls as they look to snap this losing skid is a meeting with the sliding Cleveland Cavaliers in the back-end of back-to-back games on April 17. Tip-off time between the Bulls and divisional foe Cavs at home at the United Center is set for 7 p.m. CT.