Chicago Bulls: Player grades for the halfway mark of 2020-21

The Chicago Bulls need Zach Lavine and Lauri Markkanen to be good players.

Zach LaVine — A+

LaVine has put on an extraordinary performance in the first half of the season and is a huge reason why the Bulls are a fringe playoff team.

The Eastern Conference all-star is averaging about 29 points, five rebounds, and five assists per game. He is shooting near 50/40/90 with 52.3 percent from the field, 43.5 percent from three, and 85.1 percent from the free-throw line.

LaVine has been massively efficient shooting and carrying his team to wins. He has just as many win shares through 34 games this season as he did last season with 60 games. His defense has shown major improvements on the ball with his hustle and is taking higher assignments.

Lauri Markkanen — B

To be honest, Markkanen should probably have an incomplete grade, but there are some critiques to be made with him, especially since this is the last year on his rookie contract.

In the14 games Markkanen has played, he has averaged 19.1 points, 6.1 rebounds, and 0.9 assists. Like LaVine, Markkanen is not far off shooting 50/40/90 from the field. He is at 51.4 percent from the floor, 39.6 percent from distance, and 84.4 percent from the charity stripe.

Two takeaways from Markkanen’s play thus far are his constant struggle to defend the paint and his inability to play a full season. Through nearly four seasons, Markkanen has never played a full campaign.

He has definitely been playing more aggressively and is getting comfortable in Billy Donovan’s offense but he needs to be around to help out the Bulls. Outside of that, he is playing great basketball on the offensive side of the ball and his numbers dictate that.