Chicago Bulls: 4 free agents that could fill Markkanen’s role

Entering the 2021 NBA offseason, we all expected Lauri Markkanen to find a new home this summer. But after a seemingly endless series of rumors indicating teams were interested in the Finnish ⁠forward⁠—including New Orleans, Minnesota, San Antonio, Charlotte, and finally Dallas⁠—it started to feel like a deal was never going to come to fruition and that Markkanen would eventually return to the Chicago Bulls in anticlimactic fashion.

Then, seemingly out of nowhere, the Cleveland Cavaliers emerged as suitors for Markkanen and sealed a deal before interest from any party involved managed to leak. A big obstacle in negotiations proved to be Markkanen’s unwillingness to accept less money, which ultimately held up the DeMar DeRozan deal that would have otherwise sent Lauri to San Antonio instead of the beloved veteran forward Thaddeus Young.

Cleveland does not seem to possess the hesitancy of San Antonio, however, as the Cavaliers have locked Markkanen up on a four-year, $67 million deal in a sign-and-trade with the Chicago Bulls. The Portland Trail Blazers also got involved in the transaction to make it a three-team trade, acquiring Larry Nance Jr. from Cleveland in the process.

The Bulls on the other hand received a strong haul in return with a solid bench piece in Derrick Jones Jr., along with a lottery-protected first-round draft pick from Portland and a second-round draft pick from Cleveland (via Denver).

The Chicago Bulls are not done making moves yet, they have much to figure out in the wake of the trade that sent Lauri Markkanen to Cleveland.

As it currently stands, the Bulls have metamorphosized into a whole new team this summer. In fact, Patrick Williams is now the third-longest tenured player on the team (after Zach LaVine and Coby White) after just completing his rookie campaign.

LaVine and White will join the newly acquired trio of Lonzo Ball, Alex Caruso, and Ayo Dosunmu to round out the guard rotation. Jones Jr., Troy Brown Jr., and Javonte Green will likely battle it out for the backup small forward spot behind DeMar DeRozan. Williams will slide down to starting power forward while Nikola Vucevic leads the center position with Tony Bradley and Marko Simonovic in reserve.

As you can see, there’s not much left for Chicago to figure out. That is, besides who will be the primary power forward off the bench now that Markkanen is gone. The Bulls still have two open roster spots as well as a two-way contract slot available to give out, so there’s still a lot that could happen between now and the start of the 2021-22 season.

Let’s look at the first of four remaining free agents I believe would be the best options when it comes to replacing Lauri Markkanen on the Chicago Bulls.