Chicago Bulls: 3 takeaways from Lauri Markkanen’s preseason debut

3. Shot wasn’t falling

One of the reasons why the Bulls were high on Markkanen is because of his ability to shoot the long ball at a respectable clip. He shot 42 percent from distance in his lone collegiate season with the Arizona Wildcats and he solidified his stock in this area during EuroBasket 2017.

In his NBA preseason debut, though, Markkanen didn’t exactly set the nets on fire. In fact, the rookie missed six of his seven attempts in the first half en route to a 1-for-9 performance. To put this outing into its proper context, Markkanen recorded more fouls (three) than made field goals (one).

Furthermore, he missed on all six of his attempts from 3-point range. This wasn’t exactly what Bulls fans were hoping to see from the prized rookie. In spite of the less-than-impressive numbers, Fred Hoiberg wasn’t the least bit concerned about Markkanen’s first outing.

"“That’s one thing that I think everybody loves about Lauri,’’ Fred Hoiberg told the Chicago Sun-Times. “I’ve talked about the Summer League. My favorite game was the one where he took 10 threes. He didn’t make any of them, but he kept shooting it. And then the next game he bounced back with a big game, knocking down shots.”"

It will be interesting to see how Markkanen responds when the Bulls go on the road to face the Cleveland Cavaliers in their next preseason contest.