Lauri’s Alive! Markkanen Shows Signs Of Life In Bulls Win vs. Cavaliers
The Finnish forward scored a solid 16 points with a diverse shot selection on Saturday night.
What has happened to Lauri Markkanen since the acquisition of All-Star center Nikola Vucevic is both disappointing and not shocking at the same time. Since the trade deadline, Markkanen is averaging 9.5 points and 4.7 rebounds in just under 23 minutes per game.
Vucevic is a high-usage, offense-first center with clear defensive deficiencies. Because of this, it was clear from the start that Vooch’s fit with Markkanen was questionable at best. This is what makes it clear that Markkanen — at least as a starting player — is not in the Bulls’ long-term plans.
But the 23-year old forward can still play aggressively in his bench role. And the more he does just that, he will make himself some sweet cash long-term and earn himself more minutes in the rotation in the short-term.
Billy Donovan has shown he is willing to try just about anything to get this Bulls team to wake up. So a slight minutes bump for Lauri in the absence of Zach LaVine isn’t out of the question.
Donovan loves his bigs to be threats in the paint, especially when they get their work done early in terms of positioning. You won’t see Markkanen execute a post seal often but he did a solid job on Saturday night.
Look at the play below in which Markkanen calls for the ball as he is streaking wide open down the court.
Lauri spots 6-foot-4 Matthew Dellavedova as the closest defender picking him up. Markkanen initiates contact — I know, shocking — and seals Delly with his left arm as he catches the post entry pass from Vooch with his right and knocks down a right-hand push shot.
Nothing Markkanen did in Saturday’s win over Cleveland was especially impressive. But I wanted to note how Lauri scored against the Cavaliers, because a more diverse shot selection is a clear path to him becoming a better player, whether it be in Chicago or somewhere else.
The Chicago bigs have done a great job of throwing post-entry passes. The quick decision made by Nikola Vucevic below is impressive, and credit goes to Billy Donovan for the play design:
Markkanen scored 16 points on 6–for-12 shooting, but most importantly, his shot attempts were split evenly between 3-point and 2-point attempts.
Per Cleaning The Glass, Markkanen is having the best season of his career in terms of finishing at 66% on his baskets at the rim (shots within four feet of the basket). Unfortunately, that mark is still quite bad, placing Lauri in the 44th percentile among bigs.
The easiest path to Markkanen becoming a better finisher is getting more repetitions, which again, doesn’t come easy on a roster with Vucevic, Thad Young, Daniel Theis, all playing pivotal roles.
In the likely two weeks (or more) absence of Zach LaVine, now is the perfect time for Markkanen to explore doing more of his work inside of the arc. It is obviously unlikely that Lauri ever becomes a dominant inside force, but the Bulls at least need him to be a competent one sans LaVine.
With more reliable, floor-spacing bigs often flanking Lauri in Theis or Vucevic, hopefully, we see Donovan look to get the 7-footer even more rolls to the rim. It’s still an obvious area of weakness for Markkanen but the only way for him to get better is to try.
