Chicago Bulls: Three things to look forward to post All-Star break

Future All-Star Lauri Markkanen

Markkanen has participated in All-Star weekend every season in his young career. It started with the 2018 NBA Rising Stars where he totaled 15 points and six rebounds for the World team. Also, he was runner-up in the skills competition, losing to Spencer Dinwiddie of the Nets in the final round that year. This past weekend Markkanen once again participated in Rising Stars scoring 21 points with six rebounds this time around. He added a few highlight dunks in the mix as well, including this one with an assist from potential Rookie of the year candidate Luka Doncic.

If the way Markkanen has been playing as of late is a sign of his continued growth then he could potentially have a chance to participate in the real All-Star game come 2020. Over the last 15 games, Markkanen is averaging 21 points and 11 rebounds. He is doing all of that with a shooting line of 44/39/91. When he is producing like that it’s not too far fetched to imagine Markkanen one day joining the elite 50-40-90 club. It all starts with the growing chemistry between Lavine and Markkanen.

Recently Lavine has been doing a wonderful job of finding Markkanen when he is open. Not to mention Boylen has just started allowing the big men to bring the ball up court in transition which creates more opportunities for the young star. One thing of note is that since the trade Markkanen’s usage rate is tops on the team at 25.5, with Lopez a close second at 23.5. So the addition of Porter and his shooting ability has just allowed more space for Markkanen to create.

All in all, if Markkanen continues to produce this type of scoring output with the improved rebounding ability he has shown it won’t be long before the kid from Finland will be able to add All-Star among his many other accolades.