Why Chicago Bulls could bring back Lauri Markkanen: Lack of other shot makers
A potential scenario where Markkanen returns to the Chicago Bulls is interesting largely due to the trade protections surrounding him. Any player that signs with a team in free agency cannot be traded until Dec. 15 at the earliest. Additionally, Markkanen would receive a no-trade clause for accepting the qualifying offer.
This means the Bulls would be locked into keeping Markkanen for at least half of the season, and I don’t necessarily believe that is such a bad thing. Let’s take a look at how the Bulls’ current depth chart will most likely look.
What would the Chicago Bulls’ bench rotation look like if power forward Lauri Markkanen returned on a one-year qualifying offer?
- Lonzo Ball – Alex Caruso – Ayo Dosunmu
- Zach LaVine – Coby White
- DeMar DeRozan – Troy Brown Jr. – Javonte Green
- Patrick Williams – Lauri Marrkanen*
- Nikola Vucevic – Tony Bradley – Marko Simonovic
Obviously, this lineup necessitates Markkanen returning in the first place. Otherwise, the Bulls would likely look to sign a qualified player like Paul Millsap or perhaps use their $5 million trade exception from the Daniel Theis trade to fill the hole at the four.
Chicago’s bench is stacked with defensive talent considering that Caruso, Brown Jr., and Bradley all being positives on the defensive side of things. However, as things currently stand, White is the only offensive threat and shot creator coming off the bench. The Bulls can work around this and stagger the starting crew’s minutes to ensure that Coby is never on his own out there, but it’s still far from an ideal situation.
This is where Lauri comes in, where he’d be a primary offensive option off the bench. For the first time in his career, he would be able to feast on the other team’s second unit instead of their starting cast.
Considering one of the biggest knocks on Markkanen’s game is his lack of physicality, this would hopefully help him overcome those challenges while facing less physically imposing defenders.
Another very important point to consider is that Markkanen would have true playmakers to dish him open looks for the first time ever. Lonzo can push fast breaks and hit Markkanen for easy lobs in transition, DeRozan — who has evolved his playmaking ability significantly while in San Antonio — can slash and kick it out for open threes, while LaVine and Vucevic demand double teams and stretch defenses to the perimeter.
Simply put, Lauri is a high-end role player at worst who has been asked to do more than he is capable of due to a lack of personnel in Chicago. He now has a team surrounding him that can compensate for his weaknesses as well as allow his strengths to thrive.