If you can’t sign a superstar, go for the role players who can play D, and shoot the ball. Honestly, I don’t think Markkanen is worth much more than the MLE in today’s NBA. that’s the reason his drafting team has little interest in retaining him.
I’d play Luka regularly right now for this purpose precisely. It’s tough to tell without regular minutes if he can shoot well enough to start in the NBA, but you can’t assume he’d be that shooter based on what he’s shown. He might not be ready to play regularly if he can’t shoot well enough.
He needs minutes we agree on that, but we don’t know whether he’s ready to play well enough in those minutes to keep his spot. I wouldn’t withhold getting someone who can shoot next summer on his account.
"At the right price" is the key point..
I think so
I mean it's the bulls so can't put much stock in their decision making
They traded for Vucevic to make the playoffs and they became significantly worse
These reporters aren't pulling any punches. They're asking him tough questions. Lauri looks uncomfortable with the questions (even got into a spat with one of the reporters), and clearly unhappy with his role.
There's no way he stays in Chicago. He'll straight sign with someone else, or S&T will be done. Bulls management made its call on the main big being Vooch. Does Lauri have flaws, yes. But do the diligence on him. See what options a sign and trade would mean, possibly a third team, or slightly overpay to keep Bulls or other teams away if he's your target. Front load the contract, decrease the amounts the following years as an example. But he's not going to be a Bull very much longer.
Yea...that's a divorce in the making...
He is also made of China long list of injuries plus his defense is not that good at all.
Can't even make the future of a bad Chicago Bulls team.
Really don't want to overpay for this guy. Pop needs to play Luka.
I think he is underutilized offensively. Dust off the Bertans off-screen deep 3 and Aldridge pick and pop playbook and you may see a different player.
Offense is not the problem. He’s 7 ft., not a rim protector, and a turnstile on the perimeter. He ing sucks ass on defense.
I’m already pre-hating the guy with nothing concrete except rumors. Do not want.
Look man your are not getting a unicorn for 16-20 mil a year. 18 mil for a guy with potential to blow your offense wide open is a good gamble. Plus think of it as the difference between Derozan's defense to Lauri and getting scoring while not taking the ball from the other guys. You can always bench him at that salary if Luka or a draft pick pans out and we need a bench offensive anchor to replace Rudy. We need to spend at least 43 mil next offseason and offense/shooting cost a lot.
Is his defense worse than Kristaps? On offense, is there any similarities there?
If only we were a lottery-bound team, then we could play Luka more minutes to see what we have. But obviously we are shooting for the play-in tournament with the goal of getting hot and, you know, win the le, so I guess our hands are tied and we’ll need to keep playing the veterans.
I think the concerns about his "glass body" are overblown.
IMO, if the injuries have changed the way you play, i.e. Blake Griffin, then it sure is a concern. From what I've seen, he's still as spry as he was in his first year in the NBA. Some players are just unlucky for a few years, and then go on to be injury-free for the rest of their career.
I think his biggest issue is his decision-making. If it was anything else, I'd say he's a lost cause and has no room to improve. But the guy did average 17 points at one point, and not any scrub can do that. If Trey Lyles had the offense go through him, he still wouldn't get close. There's talent here, and it's a gamble that could pay off.
What's interesting is in the last few games for the Bulls, I've read that he's been slotted at SF.
Raptors could be a landing spot for Lauri.
After the Raptors’ 122-113 loss to the Bulls on April 8, Nurse was very complimentary of Markkanen. He referred to Markkanen as “a really good player.” He said Markkanen “was unbelievable tonight, and he played 18 minutes. He was unbelievable. Every time he touched the ball, something good happened, and every time we made a mistake, he made us pay.”
I believe if he would put in the work on his body then some of the injuries and physicality concerns would go away. He needs to add muscle.
People could bring up Whites glass body too, and to be fair it was the only thing that worried me about him when he got his deal. Hoping for the best here. I much prefer the Spurs going after underrated young guys than over the hill proven vets. Rudy is near his expiration date.
Good find. Yeah, he makes a lot of sense as a Raptors target. They'd play him at center and probably could hide some of his defensive shortcomings due to the bulk and length of Siakam and OG.
"The Raptors will be about $25 million below the cap if they don’t re-sign Kyle Lowry and waive the non-guaranteed deals of Aron Baynes, Rodney Hood, Paul Watson and DeAndre’ Bembry. This includes Gary Trent, Jr.’s cap hold. They could generate another $7 million in room by waiving or trading Chris Boucher."
OK, try to imagine our defense from earlier this year, with LaMarcus, before he got benched. Now, subtract the only thing that made LaMarcus worth playing, his rim protection. Not a fan of spending $20M on sliding backwards into our awful defense from earlier this year. LaMarcus also shot 36% from long, and that couldn’t even keep him on the floor.
Why would I imagine Markannen with Aldridge's foot speed. A more closer comparison is the 18-19 season LA-Poeltl starting lineup has a top 10 defense with Forbes and DDR.
Right. This year's Aldridge had the worst defense known to mankind. Players may blow by Markkanen more often than others, but I wager they'll be able to cover that up better than they tried to with Aldridge. The question is what Lauri does when he does get blown by. Is he going to react with stupid fouls similar to what Rudy Gay does every time he gets blown by? Or is he going to be in better position and allow Poeltl to block the shot?
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