Chicago Bulls players who hurt their contract value in 20-21: Lauri Markkanen
There wasn’t a more critical season in the still-young NBA career of fourth-year power forward Lauri Markkanen than this one for him to shine for the Bulls. The former seventh overall pick of the Bulls (originally from the Minnesota Timberwolves) in the first round of the 2017 NBA Draft has had a largely up and down NBA career up to this point.
If there was any season for Markkanen to get it right, though, it needed to be this one. He was in the midst of the final year of his rookie contract, and it clearly started out on the right foot. The Bulls got solid play from Markkanen out of the gates that saw him as a potential contender for Most Improved Player. But that level of production quickly waned as the All-Star Break approached.
Another upper-body injury issue caused Markkanen to miss a few weeks in February and March. And once he returned, he wasn’t even in the starting unit much for Donovan and the Bulls. If Donovan didn’t even find enough value out of Markkanen to put him in the starting five down the stretch on a consistent basis, it’s hard to think many other teams have his stock trending up entering the offseason.
It is the combination of injuries and up and down play in all likelihood that are the two main factors that hurt Markkanen’s contract value when he hits the free agent market this summer. And even though he is set to get starter-level money in restricted free agency, his value might not be as high as it once was.