Lauri Markkanen Discussion Thread

[transplant]

I've been a Markkanen fan for a long time so you can color me disappointed...it doesn't look like it'll end well.

Someone said that Markkanen isn't a good NBA player. Actually, I think that's exactly what he is...good, as in above average. That's well short of what we had hoped for. Has he, like several Bulls players, suffered from the absence of a genuinely good PG? Yeah.

Regardless of how folks here trash him, I strongly suspect that some other team is going to value him more highly this offseason than the Bulls will and offer him a pretty good contract. That's probably a good thing all around because the Bulls have other pressing needs that easily trump what Markkanen could give them. Until then, I hope Markkanen builds his market value and helps us win a few more games.

[Pentele]

The pro-Lauri, anti-Coby dissonance (seems to go hand-in-hand, for whatever reason - obviously Coby at PG ruined what was otherwise a MIP run for Lauri) borders obsession and goes beyond rationale.

Consider that everybody is piling on Coby right now because he is playing so badly. It is merely a subset of that group who like Lauri, are "pro-Lauri", et cetera. In a word, you are mistaking correlation for causation (i.e., "anti-Coby" views are not caused by "pro-Lauri" views, what you perceive is a correlation).

[FanInTheAttic]

I started following this board a couple of months ago, thanks for the interesting discussions. This is my first post here, just wanted to share some thoughts.

Could it be possible that it was actually Lauri Markkanen who didn't want to sign with the Bulls last offseason ? Maybe it was Lauri who didn't want to sign an extension before evaluating how the team would operate under new management (money can be used easily as an excuse) Lauri seems like a truly team oriented player who might really be decent, even successful, player in the right environment. Obviously Bulls is not that environment at the moment. To me he just feels like someone who wants to play basketball as good as he can to support the team he is playing with. He has been very polite and professional about the current situation but surely knows that he would have better opportunities to score, win games, and even succeed in the playoffs somewhere else than in the current, and possibly future, losing Bulls team. He must have ambition to play winning basketball like any other player and is at the moment probably just looking forward to a fresh start somewhere else. Bulls FO probably feels the same, at least based on how Markkanen has been used in the last few games.

It doesn't feel right when Bulls fans are blaming Markkanen or other individual players for the weakness of the team. Markkanen, WCJ and now when WCJ is out and Markkanen benched with low minutes, Coby and Sato are the ones getting the blame. I'm not saying that these players didn't make mistakes or have any bad games, but you can't put the blame on one player, it's the whole team who is losing (includes coaching). If there is one player who could be blamed it is the team leader, in this case Zach. He is an incredible scorer, but it doesn't make a difference if he scores 50 or 60 if the game is lost. Of course it's not Zach's fault either, there just seems to be something fundamentally wrong with this Bulls team. A lot of individual skill, but the pieces just don't fit together. No team chemistry that would elevate the whole team in to a new level. Selfish plays don't help either. I never really understood why people on this board value the skill of a player to create his own shots so much. It is useful at times, but I would much rather see the whole team creating shots for one another. Keep the ball moving in the offense. I wouldn't mind if Zach (for example) would sink those difficult 3's and we would win, but he hasn't really succeeded in shots in clutch moments (it has happened at least once in this season though). He is just not yet at that level of playing.

[ZOMG]

Hear me out!





OK, forget it.

[League Circles]

I actually agree that he should start. I think the benefit of seeing more of what he can do with the starters and against other starters outweighs the risk of either us playing worse due to him starting or him raising his free agent value beyond what it would be if he was on the bench.

[Leslie Forman]

Nah, he doesn't.

[bullslas]

I think he needs to start, we tried right after the trade and we made the decision to change it asap, basically they had their mind set already.... We need some more floor space and Lauri helps you with that!

[GoBlue72391]

Either Lauri or Theis should be starting. Thad is a terrible fit and redundant next to Vuch. He would be much better off the bench.

[sco]

Nice one!

[FranchisePlayer]

Sato
Lavine
TBJ
The Finnisher
Vucevic

[WindyCityBorn]

I really don't care about Lauri anymore. Looks like a goner after season so I'm not vested interest in how he performs. Strong argument could be made that Theis should start over him too.

[Grodoboldo]

Good one, Mrs Markannen, welcome to the board! Next time, start a new account instead of hijacking an old one.

[weneeda2guard]

Yea cause lauri has never been given that opportunity to start. Regime change and they still got him coming off the bench. Have they ever played him more than 15 min a game in his career? It's just sad that he was drafted 7th and never been given the opportunities to start and produce.

Now, no matter how much what I posted is a clear lie, just remember, it's everybody else fault. It's always everyone else fault. I mean he didn't even get a opportunity to start when Vucevic came.....


Oh wait.....

[cool007]

"Lauri Markkanen Needs To Start"

Where? Best case is on a different team coz it ain't happening here anymore.

[rocbullsfan]

I’ve thought since the trade Lauri has been totally misused. I think it’s been obvious that for in order for the bulls to make a playoff push they need Lauri being that third weapon on offense and he needs to start. Let Thad and theis play on the second unit and focus on using Thad on the second line as the point forward. At the end of the game you can make a decision on which pf to match with Vuc depending on what they need. Seems like the fo has moved on from Lauri which is fine but it’s killing the chances of making a playoff push. I truly believe the only way this team makes a run is with Lauri starting and Contributing on the offense side of the game. If you aren’t trying to win some games then you better pray we don’t end up with the 5-8 pick otherwise the trade is already looking bad.

[fleet]

They do figure to be stoppers together on D

[BullChit]

Sato
Lavine
TBJ
The Finnisher
Vucevic

That's a heck of a heavy defensive load to put on TBJs shoulders....

Sent from my CPH1979 using Tapatalk

[patagonia]

Biggest problem is that Lauri doesn't add anything to his game in the offseason. Name one thing he's better at now compared to his rookie year.

I though Lauri was going to be a star so I'm really disappointed. He has all the tools but never seemed to put in the effort.

[GoBlue72391]

Watch on YouTube

This was the first game of last season, before the horribly disappointing year Lauri had under Boylen. He had 35 and 17 this game while shooting only 1 of 7 from three. This was the follow up game to the 2018-19 "FebruLauri" year, and I thought this was a sign of things to come. Future stardom for sure. If he can drop 35 on a night when his 3 ball isn't falling then look out, NBA.

Just look how confident and aggressive he was. He was driving, cutting, posting up, bodying people, handling the ball, passing. He looked like a totally different player. He created 12 to 14 of those points himself. But also look at the difference in how he was used. He was a focal point. He was a versatile, well rounded scorer. He did all this while shooting only 1 of 7 from three, the skill many here say is the only thing he can do. This wasn't an isolated incident. He had many similar games his first two years and he had a couple games like that this year, most notably the Mavericks game.

Boylen utilized him terribly, and while Billy has utilized him better than Boylen (at least up until the Vuch trade), he's used him in a very rigid manner, with pick and pops/rolls and running him off screens for 3s and cuts. That's fine, but he hasn't really allowed him to, I don't know what to call it, "freelance" I guess. Just look how often Lauri had the ball in his hands compared to now. It's not even all about the number of shots, it's more just about touches, involvement, and freedom. Obviously Lauri deserves a lot of the blame here too. He could have done something or said something, played more assertively, been more vocal calling for the ball, breaking off from the set play, etc. Just imagine how good we would be if we had the Lauri in that video along with current Zach, and maybe Vuch (though we probably wouldn't have traded for Vuch if Lauri became that player.)

A combination of confidence/aggression issues, injuries, Boylen, and misutilization derailed what looked like a bright career. It's very unfortunate it didn't work out here, but I do fully believe he'll go on to be like a 23 and 8 all-star on another team that better utilizes him. I think a lot of it is some kind of mental block and a change of scenery is probably what he needs to snap out of it. He can play, it's not like his believers were seeing things that weren't really there. If I'm wrong I'll be the first one to admit it, but I really believe that.

[JimmyButler21]

I generally don't think Markkanen cares about basketball. The fact that it seems he's regressed every year since his rookie season shows this.