The NBA offseason has come and gone, and it was a whirlwind. While LeBron James and Kawhi Leonard stole the headlines, the Bulls themselves were surprisingly active, ponying up $78M to keep Zach LaVine in town and signing Chicago high school legend Jabari Parker.
Despite their activity, none of their moves have changed who their most important player is. That player is Lauri Markkanen.
Markkanen is coming off a rookie season in which he earned all-rookie team honors. He averaged 15.2 points a night with a 51.8 eFG% and 36.2 3P% to go along with 7.5 rebounds per game.
Every single one of those numbers is better than the numbers Kristaps Porzingis posted as a rookie, a very encouraging sign.
Another encouraging sign is that people outside of Chicago are taking notice of the Finnish Phenom.
Jayson Tatum, Lauri Markkanen among breakout candidates for the 2018-19 NBA seasonhttps://t.co/5KIdspZFXT pic.twitter.com/EqoYqIzxTD
— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) August 16, 2018
“Markkanen has all the tools to be a future All-Star, and it looks as though he has the mindset, too. He seemed to take his matchup with Porzingis personally in early January, demanding the ball down the stretch en route to a career-high 33 points in a road victory. The Bulls enter 2018-19 on the outside of the East playoff picture, but Chicago is now home to the NBA’s newest unicorn.”
NBA’s newest Unicorn? Chicago will gladly take that.
