Lauri:' I can make the comeback'

[Hold That]

Hopefully he plays well enough so we can trade him. Who was the last big that regressed that much early on in their career and did a complete 180, and became really good?

Lauri needs to add an awful lot to his game for me to be a believer. Not trying to see a seven foot spot up shooter be rewarded with a 100mil deal.

Which of those players played for Boylen?

I tend to agree with you. I’d trade Lauri for a solid pick simply due to his positional value. Unless he can become a Duncan Robinson shooter from the 4 spot or a mid post force shooting over people like Dirk then I just don’t see it.

If Lauri hasn’t shown much improvement in other facets of his game beyond shooting, we should be done with him. If there was ever a time to come back with a new wrinkle in your game it’s now with all this time out and lockdowns. I’m sure he’s got a full court at his home or had access to one during the lockdowns. This upcoming season will tell us who has a real work ethic vs the players who talk about it. This goes for Coby and Wendell as well, atleast Zach has shown us slight improvement year over year pre lockdown so he gets the benefit of the doubt.

[ZOMG]

The thing I want back from Rookie Lauri is him not giving a F, just relentlessly going for it. He had a TON of dunks his first year simply because he was healthy, weighed less and would be looking to slam it every time the hoop was in range. It's a shame the rookie Markkanen dunk compilation has disappeared from Youtube, because by now, that would be a true eye opener. He's had two seasons now where he hasn't gotten any consistent lift and it hurts his game a lot.

Anyway, I don't need Markkanen to be an individual NBA star. That's asking a hell of a lot from a #7 pick. I need the Bulls to start winning, and to achieve that, we need to put Lauri in a good position to succeed for the good of the team.

[TeamMan]

He cannot score 1 on 1 nor has a decent handle.

Watch on YouTube

Some thoughts...

- For me, the most outstanding thing about this clip is the reaction of the Bulls bench. They were totally hyped after that play. But that changed last season. And often, after he made a great play, the team would turn and walk away.

- Zach was on the bench in street clothes. But he was one of the players that seemed the most hyped after the play. He was also one of the players that changed in his treatment of Lauri last season.

- RoLo was the Bulls starting center and was trailing the play. RoLo and Lauri had a great relationship, and RoLo was a big supporter of Lauri's. I think that the Bulls missed RoLo's presence in the locker room. IMO the FAs that Gar/Pax brought in were supposed to fill that role, but I got the impression that Thad Young was being inhibited/blocked by Boylen.

- Also IMO Young should have been moved into the starting lineup at SF when OPJ went down with his injury. That would have help Lauri tremendously by taking a lot of pressure of him, and possibly could have saved the Bulls season. But instead Boylen decided to go with a bunch of different 3-guard rotations that were fun/interesting to watch, but didn't synch well with the WCJ-Lauri front court and were not going to win.

- Meanwhile Boylen also kept Gafford glued to the bench until he had no choice but to play him.

In conclusion:

Lauri is a player that is motivated by winning and last year the team completely forgot about winning.

Boylen was an idiot (as we all know), but it was always my impression that his rotations had more to do with satisfying the goals/objectives of Gar/Pax than with winning.

That's right, Gar/Pax did not have a 1st goal of winning, so it's no wonder that Boylen didn't either.

And the amazing thing about that is that it was publicized the summer before that JR was shocked about the loss of revenue that happened after the Bulls missed the playoffs, and his 1st priority was to get the Bulls back to the playoffs.

Now, with a new FO, and a new HC, hopefully the team can get back to have winning as the 1st priority, and in that environment, Lauri can have a big comeback.

[The Box Office]

Slow your role, Laurie. There was no need for you to say anything. Actions speak louder than words.

Comeback? Really? Comeback. Ouch. This is sad and pathetic.

[MrFortune3]

He teased me in the first game last season. If he can just average what he did in that game I'll be a happy camper.

Lmao everyone would be a very happy camper if Lauri averaged 35/17/2 for a season. He'd be an MVP.

The crazy thing about that game was he shot 1/7 from 3. Usually his high scoring games came when hitting multiple 3s. If he hit his career average he'd be at 40+ ppg.

Which is why Lauri has so much potential unlike Lavine. He basically didnt even sweat that first game and had one of his worst shooting nights shooting 10% from deep and still got 35. That means he can easily have 50 point games on less than 30 shots.
Unlike Lavine, Lauri doesnt have to rely on his 3pt shot and its actually not even his strengths when he prefers scoring inside.

Also, Lauri being the 1st option actually proved he could impact winning from his 11game span from feb to march 2nd.
During that span, the Bulls went 6-5 while averaging over 25/10 and again he shot terribly from deep getting those numbers.

No he really doesn't. He needs to prove he can get out of his own head and make an impact on both ends of the floor before that can be said.
Zach if nothing else is confident in his game and is goin to improve every season, Lauri has yet to prove even that.

[TallDude]

Lauri has proven multiple times that he can be best player on the court. He just have to come back and start doing that more often. Boylen is gone so i have high hopes. I`m of course worried about injuries. Any player injuries not just Lauri`s.

[sco]

Lmao everyone would be a very happy camper if Lauri averaged 35/17/2 for a season. He'd be an MVP.

The crazy thing about that game was he shot 1/7 from 3. Usually his high scoring games came when hitting multiple 3s. If he hit his career average he'd be at 40+ ppg.

Which is why Lauri has so much potential unlike Lavine. He basically didnt even sweat that first game and had one of his worst shooting nights shooting 10% from deep and still got 35. That means he can easily have 50 point games on less than 30 shots.
Unlike Lavine, Lauri doesnt have to rely on his 3pt shot and its actually not even his strengths when he prefers scoring inside.

Also, Lauri being the 1st option actually proved he could impact winning from his 11game span from feb to march 2nd.
During that span, the Bulls went 6-5 while averaging over 25/10 and again he shot terribly from deep getting those numbers.

No he really doesn't. He needs to prove he can get out of his own head and make an impact on both ends of the floor before that can be said.
Zach if nothing else is confident in his game and is goin to improve every season, Lauri has yet to prove even that.

I can't say I "know" if he is/will be good or bad, but here's how I see it:

Why he could be good:
- Injuries: We can only guess how many of his games over the past 2 years were impacted by lingering shoulder, core, ankle and other injuries that he was playing through that impacted his speed, jumping or injuries.
- FebruLauri: He has shown that he "can" be very good for more than a game here and there.
- Healthy Teammates: No Bull has seen a stretch long enough over the past 2 seasons to have develop much chemistry with four other healthy starters. Also, when you are trotting out 2 starters and 3 g-leaguers, the other team can easily take away your top 2 guys' efficiency.
- Coaching: Boylen - nuff said.

Why he still could not be good:
- Shooting: Lauri has yet to show he can consistently make open 3's. He also, hasn't shown the ability to shoot over even guards covering him. Lauri's game needs to start with his 3pt game. If he can't make those, it is much easier for defenders to shut him down.
- Ball Handling: He showed no ability to dribble in the paint. He would try his predictable spin move and promptly get stripped 90% of the time.
- Muscles: He got too bulky and slow to be effective at his strengths. Can he reverse that?

[Chi]

Me personally, I just want to see him play well again and get the NBA back on his bandwagon so we can get his trade value back up and ship him out for something valuable.

Even at his best, I just don't think you can win Championships with players like him, so for that reason I'd like to move on.

[bledredwine]

If he had Jimmy's mentality, he would be such a beast.

I'm still a believer in his talent.

[FranchisePlayer]

He cannot score 1 on 1 nor has a decent handle.

Watch on YouTube

Enes Kanter though? That dude is easier to score on than the Falcons defense in the 4th quarter.

Yet he's played 641 games in this league.

[chefo]

Lauri is not some kid who played 15 games in college so we have to guess how he's going to pan out. We know what he HAS done against NBA talent. Therefore, we know what he CAN be.

Lauri was treated as a 1a/1b under Hoiberg and it continued under Boylen for the remainder of the season. Same treatments as Zach. He got to handle the ball on the P&R, be the screener in the P&R (you guys remember that Atlanta game?), use off-ball screens, drive and use the elbow to shoot over people. The last 20 games of his rookie year and next year, Lauri was a straight up stud. FebruLauri was not some insane Niko-like hot shooting stretch. He was just so versatile, if you got him the ball in a position where he can do something with it. On top of that, Hoiberg did more than just feature Lauri on O. Because Lauri has good straight-line speed and is very athletic for a guy so tall, he had the others, especially Rolo focus on boxing out so that Lauri can grab the board and go. He's very difficult to stop once he picks up speed just because he's so big. Mind you, that's the same exact strategy Coach Donovan implemented for Russ in OKC.

Boylen went away from virtually everything I described above last year. Like everything. He was no longer allowed to play at the elbow. He no longer set screens for Zach and the other guards. He no longer was allowed to ball-handle in the P&R. He almost never was screened for off-ball. He was allowed two things--like every other Bull. Shoot the ball when it was swung to him (which may not happen for a quarter at a time sometimes), or drive all the way to the rack. That's it. A 7 footer, unless his name in Giannis, cannot do the driving from that far out. Nobody ever has been able to pull that off. That's like 3-4 dribbles, especially when he catches it at a stand-still like the vast majority of the time. By the time he's anywhere near the paint, there was already a frat party going on down there. BTW, Zach faced the same issue, and he's fast for an NBA guard. To expect that out of a 7 footer is just idiotic game management.

The ways you use a 7 footer who does not have a large posterior, if he's guarded by a much smaller player, are:
1.) To down screen for him on the strong side and get him the ball in the mid-block either facing the bucket or half-turned, at worst
2.) To high low with a C that can make a 17 foot FT jumper
3.) To get him at the elbow, where he's a single dribble away from the hoop or he can just rise up for a short jumper over people.

The way you use a seven footer who's being guarded by a slower big, is to get him the ball in motion:
Use him as the pick-setter. Over and over, and over. Make him pop most of the time, roll on occasion to keep the D honest. It's not rocket science.

Just take what the D gives you. That's what makes a player like Lauri so valuable in theory. He can score against ANY D, if the team is smart about where he gets the ball and how.

I'm not reinventing the wheel here. I watched enough ball in the 90s to see that's how ALL the elite offensive bigs (apart from Shaq) were used. And none of them could shoot consistently from 3, so their pick and pops were 18 foot jumpers, not 3s. And nobody would think to guard a tall big with a much smaller player unless that player's name was Rodman because a small player cannot guard a skilled big at the elbow without a lot of help.

If a big is talented and/or athletic, he did not need to have insane McHale-like foot work to score in bunches. Again, we're not talking about a 6'6 guy. Lauri is legit 7 feet tall. He doesn't need post moves to average 22-23 ppg. He can do it as-is. If he actually learned good post footwork, we'd be talking a top-5 offensive talent in the entire NBA. That's probably an unrealistic expectation. Just to remind people--he was at 21/10 per 36 as a soph.

Here's the crazy thing--the Bulls actually used Lauri like that for entire stretches and he kicked butt for the limited time he was on the floor. I'm not guessing here--we've seen him do it. Which is why, like any rational person looking at his soph campaign, I thought that if you jacked up his usage to 27-29, he'd demolish people his third year.

Which is why what happened last year was the biggest shocker of all. To me at least. When you have a guy like Lauri, who among other things was pretty hyped-up and visible league-wide his rookie season, your job is to make him look as good as humanely possible. A team with a 22 ppg Zach, and 22 ppg Lauri would look infinitely more attractive to good NBA players than a team with 25ppg Zach and 14ppg Lauri. Instead, he was told to space out and go nowhere near the ball handler... because offensive schemes, you see. They were offensive, all right, by virtue of the sheer idiocy of using your second best offensive player in the same role that you can fill with a 6'6 journeyman. Schematically, you didn't need a second option AT ALL in the O the Bulls ran last year.

Anyways, as a big forward himself, I think AK probably understands what Lauri needs to do--forget about him playing C. Make him lose 15 pounds and play F like he did his rookie campaign. Make a concentrated effort to feature him, like in years past. There's every indication that he'll reward that with production.

There's always the possibility that the Bulls completely derailed his career last year. Crossing fingers that he can bounce back.

[MrFortune3]

Which is why Lauri has so much potential unlike Lavine. He basically didnt even sweat that first game and had one of his worst shooting nights shooting 10% from deep and still got 35. That means he can easily have 50 point games on less than 30 shots.
Unlike Lavine, Lauri doesnt have to rely on his 3pt shot and its actually not even his strengths when he prefers scoring inside.

Also, Lauri being the 1st option actually proved he could impact winning from his 11game span from feb to march 2nd.
During that span, the Bulls went 6-5 while averaging over 25/10 and again he shot terribly from deep getting those numbers.

No he really doesn't. He needs to prove he can get out of his own head and make an impact on both ends of the floor before that can be said.
Zach if nothing else is confident in his game and is goin to improve every season, Lauri has yet to prove even that.

I can't say I "know" if he is/will be good or bad, but here's how I see it:

Why he could be good:
- Injuries: We can only guess how many of his games over the past 2 years were impacted by lingering shoulder, core, ankle and other injuries that he was playing through that impacted his speed, jumping or injuries.
- FebruLauri: He has shown that he "can" be very good for more than a game here and there.
- Healthy Teammates: No Bull has seen a stretch long enough over the past 2 seasons to have develop much chemistry with four other healthy starters. Also, when you are trotting out 2 starters and 3 g-leaguers, the other team can easily take away your top 2 guys' efficiency.
- Coaching: Boylen - nuff said.

Why he still could not be good:
- Shooting: Lauri has yet to show he can consistently make open 3's. He also, hasn't shown the ability to shoot over even guards covering him. Lauri's game needs to start with his 3pt game. If he can't make those, it is much easier for defenders to shut him down.
- Ball Handling: He showed no ability to dribble in the paint. He would try his predictable spin move and promptly get stripped 90% of the time.
- Muscles: He got too bulky and slow to be effective at his strengths. Can he reverse that?

Don't get me wrong, I think Lauri is a talented player. He has got to be aggressive and improve his game though. I don't think he's more talented than say Coby, Zach or WCJ, but I think he can be a solid or better NBA player but that's on him wanting it and taking the Bull by the horns.

Can't keep blaming the system(now for rebounds, yeah, the system jacked him up). We need to see him improving in getting rebounds consistently, playing solid team defense, aggressively looking for his shot and making them with confidence.

[MrFortune3]

Watch on YouTube

Enes Kanter though? That dude is easier to score on than the Falcons defense in the 4th quarter.

Yet he's played 641 games in this league.

For 5 different teams, soon to be onto his 6th team assuming he declines his player option. Just sticking around in the league doesn't mean you're really good.

[sco]

Enes Kanter though? That dude is easier to score on than the Falcons defense in the 4th quarter.

Yet he's played 641 games in this league.

For 5 different teams, soon to be onto his 6th team assuming he declines his player option. Just sticking around in the league doesn't mean you're really good.

Kanter is the poster boy for the league's use of role players. He is a great scorer and rebounder. He lacks any kind of rim protection, but has always been effective in a bench scorer role. The league views bench vets as a commodity to fill out rosters on cheap deals to maximize what they can spend on MAX guys.

[FranchisePlayer]

Enes Kanter though? That dude is easier to score on than the Falcons defense in the 4th quarter.

Yet he's played 641 games in this league.

For 5 different teams, soon to be onto his 6th team assuming he declines his player option. Just sticking around in the league doesn't mean you're really good.

I just thought it was kind of awkward from you to underrate Lauri's move just because he didn't jump over one of the TOP10 centers in this league.

[FranchisePlayer]

Lauri is not some kid who played 15 games in college so we have to guess how he's going to pan out. We know what he HAS done against NBA talent. Therefore, we know what he CAN be.

Lauri was treated as a 1a/1b under Hoiberg and it continued under Boylen for the remainder of the season. Same treatments as Zach. He got to handle the ball on the P&R, be the screener in the P&R (you guys remember that Atlanta game?), use off-ball screens, drive and use the elbow to shoot over people. The last 20 games of his rookie year and next year, Lauri was a straight up stud. FebruLauri was not some insane Niko-like hot shooting stretch. He was just so versatile, if you got him the ball in a position where he can do something with it. On top of that, Hoiberg did more than just feature Lauri on O. Because Lauri has good straight-line speed and is very athletic for a guy so tall, he had the others, especially Rolo focus on boxing out so that Lauri can grab the board and go. He's very difficult to stop once he picks up speed just because he's so big. Mind you, that's the same exact strategy Coach Donovan implemented for Russ in OKC.

Boylen went away from virtually everything I described above last year. Like everything. He was no longer allowed to play at the elbow. He no longer set screens for Zach and the other guards. He no longer was allowed to ball-handle in the P&R. He almost never was screened for off-ball. He was allowed two things--like every other Bull. Shoot the ball when it was swung to him (which may not happen for a quarter at a time sometimes), or drive all the way to the rack. That's it. A 7 footer, unless his name in Giannis, cannot do the driving from that far out. Nobody ever has been able to pull that off. That's like 3-4 dribbles, especially when he catches it at a stand-still like the vast majority of the time. By the time he's anywhere near the paint, there was already a frat party going on down there. BTW, Zach faced the same issue, and he's fast for an NBA guard. To expect that out of a 7 footer is just idiotic game management.

The ways you use a 7 footer who does not have a large posterior, if he's guarded by a much smaller player, are:
1.) To down screen for him on the strong side and get him the ball in the mid-block either facing the bucket or half-turned, at worst
2.) To high low with a C that can make a 17 foot FT jumper
3.) To get him at the elbow, where he's a single dribble away from the hoop or he can just rise up for a short jumper over people.

The way you use a seven footer who's being guarded by a slower big, is to get him the ball in motion:
Use him as the pick-setter. Over and over, and over. Make him pop most of the time, roll on occasion to keep the D honest. It's not rocket science.

Just take what the D gives you. That's what makes a player like Lauri so valuable in theory. He can score against ANY D, if the team is smart about where he gets the ball and how.

I'm not reinventing the wheel here. I watched enough ball in the 90s to see that's how ALL the elite offensive bigs (apart from Shaq) were used. And none of them could shoot consistently from 3, so their pick and pops were 18 foot jumpers, not 3s. And nobody would think to guard a tall big with a much smaller player unless that player's name was Rodman because a small player cannot guard a skilled big at the elbow without a lot of help.

If a big is talented and/or athletic, he did not need to have insane McHale-like foot work to score in bunches. Again, we're not talking about a 6'6 guy. Lauri is legit 7 feet tall. He doesn't need post moves to average 22-23 ppg. He can do it as-is. If he actually learned good post footwork, we'd be talking a top-5 offensive talent in the entire NBA. That's probably an unrealistic expectation. Just to remind people--he was at 21/10 per 36 as a soph.

Here's the crazy thing--the Bulls actually used Lauri like that for entire stretches and he kicked butt for the limited time he was on the floor. I'm not guessing here--we've seen him do it. Which is why, like any rational person looking at his soph campaign, I thought that if you jacked up his usage to 27-29, he'd demolish people his third year.

Which is why what happened last year was the biggest shocker of all. To me at least. When you have a guy like Lauri, who among other things was pretty hyped-up and visible league-wide his rookie season, your job is to make him look as good as humanely possible. A team with a 22 ppg Zach, and 22 ppg Lauri would look infinitely more attractive to good NBA players than a team with 25ppg Zach and 14ppg Lauri. Instead, he was told to space out and go nowhere near the ball handler... because offensive schemes, you see. They were offensive, all right, by virtue of the sheer idiocy of using your second best offensive player in the same role that you can fill with a 6'6 journeyman. Schematically, you didn't need a second option AT ALL in the O the Bulls ran last year.

Anyways, as a big forward himself, I think AK probably understands what Lauri needs to do--forget about him playing C. Make him lose 15 pounds and play F like he did his rookie campaign. Make a concentrated effort to feature him, like in years past. There's every indication that he'll reward that with production.

There's always the possibility that the Bulls completely derailed his career last year. Crossing fingers that he can bounce back.

Kudos to you, chefo! How do you find the time to post gems like this is beyond me. How much time did that take from you?

[Leslie Forman]

"Comeback" would imply he was actually ever any good in the first place.

[HomoSapien]

That means he can easily have 50 point games on less than 30 shots.
Unlike Lavine, Lauri doesnt have to rely on his 3pt shot and its actually not even his strengths when he prefers scoring inside

A weird take to me is claiming someone can easily do something that they've never done.

[DaMayor07]

Lauri is pretty young and had a disaster of a coach and system. He seems pretty smart and capable of unlearning bad behavior from Boylen and learn from Billy D.

He's got plenty of time to still be an awesome player for us, if not, then a bench mob player for another team/contender.

[JohnnyKILLroy]

Let him work in mid-range and he’ll be fine. It’ll open up his entire game.