Wow, this hurts.
Shams Charania of The Athletic broke the news Friday night that Bulls second-year forward Lauri Markkanen suffered a high-grade elbow strain that will force him to miss 6-8 weeks. Barring any setbacks, this timetable places his return somewhere around Thanksgiving.
The loss of Lauri is similar to the pre-season loss of Nikola Mirotic last year, where the incumbent power forward was out with an injury for the first portion of the season. Well, just like Markkanen benefited from that situation, someone else could very well benefit from this one. Thoughts may immediately go to Jabari Parker, who will be starting at power forward in place of Markkanen for the time being. Bobby Portis or Wendell Carter Jr. could both see time at that spot in Markkanen’s absence. The Bulls’ frontcourt depth lessens the blow, but it’s Zach LaVine who needs to raise his scoring even more in his place.
Coming into this season, LaVine was more than likely always going to be the Bulls primary offensive weapon in front of Markkanen and Parker. Kris Dunn and either Carter Jr. or Robin Lopez will be the defensive players in the lineup, while LaVine, Markkanen and Parker would be the offensive punch. Losing Markkanen moves Parker to the 4 spot, and you can assume Coach Hoiberg will experiment with him at both positions since he’ll play the 3 when Markkanen returns. While he gets used to that, LaVine’s status as both a primary ball handler and the definitive primary scoring option will have to be on full display if the Bulls want to start the season competitively.
This isn’t only because of his contract or his proven scoring ability, but because it’s a role that he clearly wants. In a July interview with NBC Sports Chicago’s Vincent Goodwill, Goodwill brought up that several players on the team could have a case to be the number one option. “Everybody wants that,” LaVine responded. “(Competition is) going to bring the best out of everyone…The best is going to come from who rises from that.” When asked if he specifically wanted to be the guy, LaVine said “Obviously that’s what you work for. I put all of this hard work in not to be the second fiddle.”
LaVine played in just 24 games last season after returning from his ACL injury. While he had his ups and downs, some of his best scoring performances were without Markkanen on the court. He played five games without his then-rookie teammate, and in those five games, Zach averaged 20.2 points,4.6 rebounds and 2.8 assists. During a three-game span from 01/31-02/05, LaVine scored 23, 21 and 27 points respectively. In the following game, which saw the return of Markkanen against the T-Wolves, LaVine scored 35.
It wasn’t all positive for LaVine, however. In those five games, he had a negative +/- in all but one of them, with the Bulls ironically losing four out of those five games as well. The Bulls then shut LaVine down for the season after a 20-point game on March 15th (which was also without Markkanen). Up to that point, LaVine’s field goal percentage was steadily decreasing, and his fatigue was obvious. Kris Dunn was also shut down at this time, and Markkanen would return a short while after, playing eight more games to finish the season.
A primary storyline for the upcoming season was seeing LaVine, Markkanen and Dunn on the court together for an extended period, seeing as the trio played minimal time together last year due to health issues. Sadly, we’ll have to wait a little longer for the three core parts of the original Jimmy Butler trade to truly get a feel for one another.
As the Bulls prepare for the beginning of pre-season, and life without Lauri Markkanen for a while, Zach LaVine must be prepared to take on an even heavier scoring load than he planned, which is a challenge he seems to be up for.
