Chicago Bulls: Ranking every 1st round pick from 2010s

4. Forward Lauri Markkanen, Arizona (2017)

One of the players Carter could end up leap-frogging on this list is Lauri Markkanen, another fellow no. 7 overall pick, but drafted the year prior. The rights to Markkanen were acquired from the Minnesota Timberwolves in the infamous Zach LaVine trade, which sent Jimmy Butler to the land of 10,000 lakes.

Markkanen came to the Bulls with a lot of potential, and still today, has plenty more. We’re still trying to figure out whether or not it was Jim Boylen who forced Markkanen to take a step back in his progress, or if Markkanen has truly regressed.

His second season in the league was by far his best, where we saw Markkanen average 18.7 points and 9.0 rebounds per game. Those were numbers which led you to believe Markkanen could be on his way to being a future All Star.

After his rookie season, Markkanen bulked up quite a bit in effort to become more physical. In 2019-2020, he fell backwards in every area though. His rebounds fell by nearly three per game and his three-point shot looked non-existent, even though he never stopped shooting them.

We can only hope that, once the Bulls’ front office is completely renovated with a new executive, that Boylen is the next domino to fall — as in, he’s fired. Hopefully a fresh head coach can come in and get the most out of what should end up being a pretty solid first-round pick.