Lauri Markkanen earns first career All-Star bid originally appeared on NBC Sports Chicago
Before the tipoff of the Bulls-Hornets game on Thursday, the NBA announced its All-Star reserves for the Eastern/Western conferences, including Chicago Bulls forward DeMar DeRozan as part of the reserves.
It was the start of an exciting day for the Bulls, as one of their own will represent the team in back-to-back All-Star games, coupled with a home win over the Charlotte Hornets, 114-98.
MORE: DeMar DeRozan earns back-to-back All-Star nods
But, true Bulls fans couldn’t help but think the team could’ve had two All-Stars on their roster.
Lauri Markkanen, now with the “rebuilding” (not really) Utah Jazz, earned his first career All-Star nod in the Western Conference, announced just after DeRozan on Thursday night.
Markkanen, who was originally included in a draft day trade to send him to the Bulls with Zach LaVine in 2017, played the first four seasons of his career in Chicago.
He experienced three different coaches and two different management regimes during his time.
For that, and a slew of other factors, his potential was never fully tapped in Chicago. Markkanen came into the league as a 7-footer with great length, uncanny guard skills and a knack for shooting the ball.
But, his lack of paint presence and lackadaisical defensive efforts were the beginning of too many red flags for “The Finnisher.”
In his last season with the Bulls, he shot 48 percent from the field and over 40 percent from behind the arc on nearly six 3-point attempts per game. He recorded 13.6 points and 5.3 rebounds per game in the 2020-21 season.
That offseason, newly hired vice president of basketball operations Artūras Karnišovas and general manager Marc Eversley were faced with the difficult decision of whether or not to bring him back.
You know how this movie ends.
By the end of summer 2021, he was included in a sign-and-trade to the Cleveland Cavaliers. He was featured in a triple tower lineup along with 7-footers Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley.
Yet, he played just one season in Cleveland before being traded again, this time in a package to the Utah Jazz for Donovan Mitchell, who was named an Eastern Conference All-Star starter last week.
And while many thought Markkanen would play in limbo among a rebuilding Jazz team – one that jettisoned Mitchell and Rudy Gobert – Markkanen had other plans.
The Jazz currently have the 8th-best record in the Western Conference, on the backs of Markkanen, Jordan Clarkson and Colin Sexton.
As for Markkanen, he is averaging 24.9 points, 8.7 rebounds and 1.8 assists per game while shooting 52 percent from the field and 43 percent from 3-point land.
His development skyrocketed him into one of the league’s most entertaining and versatile players in the league. He went from a reserved big man who resorted to the 3-point arc to an overly aggressive, multi-versed player with the Jazz.
As for the Bulls, it’s shoulda, woulda, coulda on Markkanen.
They could have re-signed him to a deal, and they would have if he had put up those numbers then. Yet, the Bulls sided with rebuilding and revamping the roster immediately, not including Markkanen on those plans.
Unfortunately, it led them to the present day, with a record under .500, sitting one spot out of the Eastern Conference playoff picture.
Hopefully, it’s a learning experience, as the future for Coby White and Patrick Williams still remains in question. The Bulls would be making a similar mistake by sending either away too soon into their careers.
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