Markkanen, LaVine Need to Coexist Better for Success
We’re four games into the 2019–20 season, and the Bulls have wasted no time joining the rest of Chicago sports in becoming maddening. What was supposed to be a shot out of the gate has turned into a 1–3 start, which could haunt them if they’re making a playoff push in April. They committed their biggest crime so far Monday when they blew an 18-point lead and gave up 15 unanswered points to end a 105–98 loss to the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden. Adding salt into the wound was that Bobby Portis became the ringleader in the comeback against his former team.
But while Crazy Eyes is schedule to face the Bulls only three more times this season, the Bulls will have Lauri Markkanen and Zach LaVine together for those games plus 75 more if they stay healthy. On paper, that’s good. Then, you remember that what’s supposed to be the next great duo in franchise history has not gelled. Through four games, only one seems to be effective at a time while the other takes a back seat. Even as their scoring numbers became closer together in the Knicks game, neither shot the ball well.
If that wasn’t bad enough, their time on the floor together is having a negative impact. Per Basketball Reference, while they’ve played the most time of any Bulls duo (128:16), their points minus opponents points clock in at minus 14.3. Only LaVine and Thaddeus Young have a worse number (minus 15.6). In fact, either LaVine or Markkanen are part of the eight worst duos on the team in that category.
Go further out, and we find that LaVine and Markkanen are part of four of the five worst three-man rotations as far as points minus opponents points, the four worst four-man rotations and four of the five worst five-man rotations. Granted, some of those rotations include Kris Dunn and Shaquille Harrison, players few expect to be with the Bulls beyond this year. Still, it’s an alarming trend. A team that needed improved play on both ends is instead having trouble finding a scoring balance and stopping opponents with their two best players.
Markkanen and LaVine need to figure something out fast. Injuries limited their time together their first two seasons in Chicago, but both are fully healthy now. There are no more excuses to be had. If this core ever is going to amount to anything, this has to be the year to take a step in that direction, and that means staying in the playoff picture at worst.
It’s going to be another long season if Markkanen and LaVine don’t figure out that they both need to pull their weight at the same time. Right now, one of them tries take over the game while the other watches his numbers suffer. Are they both forgetting that the other needs to get his opportunities? If that’s true, the Bulls will be thinking draft lottery again before you know it.
If you know your Bulls history, you know one-man wrecking crews don’t work. Michael Jordan found this out the hard way when he was a young player. Sure, he was a human highlight reel and often tried to win games by himself, but it didn’t translate into rings. It took Phil Jackson implmenting Tex Winter’s triangle offense for him to realize that Scottie Pippen needed opportunities almost as much.
The good news is LaVine and Markkanen still are young, so they have time to mature as basketball players and learn what being part of a winner is about. But with the Bulls early in the third season of their rebuild, patience in Chicago is running thin. People expected to see progress, and the early returns are not good. Plus, frustrations are stemming from the two best players not shooting well or doing a good job of figuring out who should be the better player on the floor and when.
If there’s any hope here, remember that the 2004–05 Bulls started 0–9 before earning the fourth seed in the playoffs. That was the first success for those Bulls. These Bulls already are one victory ahead of that pace. But the rest of the season rests of LaVine and Markkanen, and they have work to do together whether they recognize that or not.
