Chicago Bulls: 3 takeaways from Zach LaVine and Kris Dunn missing rest of season

1. Lauri Markkanen will play out the home stretch

When the Bulls included Lauri Markkanen in the draft-night trade with Minnesota, the goal was to bring him along slowly. After all, Nikola Mirotic had won the starting job and Bobby Portis was going to be the backup at the 4-spot.

Thanks to a preseason altercation between the Mirotic and Portis that resulted in the two players missing a combined 31 games, Markkanen was forced to take on a larger role than expected. Despite being thrown into the fire sort to speak, Markkanen has performed well, to say the least.

Not counting Mirotic’s 16.8 points per contest in 25 games with the Bulls, Markkanen is the team’s second leading scorer with 15.0 points per game and he leads the team in rebounding with 7.5 boards per contest.

As is the case with most rookies, Markkanen hit the wall a bit in February. During that stretch he averaged 11.9 points per game on just 39 percent shooting from the field and 17.6 percent from beyond the arc – the lowest marks of any month this season.

Since that time, though, despite having to overcome a bout of back spasms for the second time this season, Markkanen bounced back with averages of 15.0 points and 7.0 rebounds per game in March. He also chipped in 23 points in the win against the Wizards.

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So while there are still a lot of moving parts pertaining to the roster, look for Markkanen to play out the remaining few games as he prepares for the all-important offseason.