Chicago Bulls: Season Player Grades for 2019-20
Chicago Bulls Forwards
Lauri Markkanen
Three seasons in and Lauri Markkanen remains the most baffling player on the roster. We all know about that velvety shooting form but the production from 3-point range — which has hovered around league average in his first two seasons and dipped to 34.4 percent last year — hasn’t matched the aesthetics.
He still attracts plenty of attention at the arc (87th percentile in 3-point gravity per game) and the rim (72nd percentile in rim gravity per game), but if he doesn’t improve, defenders may start to ignore him more regularly. Perhaps getting a point guard who can get him the ball in comfortable spots could help in that area. On the plus side, his defense got better (0.3 DPIPM), so that’s encouraging. Grade: C-
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Thaddeus Young:
Question: What do you get when you force career-33 percent 3-point shooter to become a stretch four? You get a player who finished with a -2.42 O-PIPM. Yes, Thaddeus Young shooting over 35 percent from long distance on the highest volume of his career worked out okay, but the decision to use him as a floor spacer led to him taking fewer shots in the paint (63.1 percent of his shots were 2’s and 32.9 percent were inside 3 feet; both career lows), where he has excelled for most of his career.
His defense wasn’t terrible (-0.11 D-PIPM), but it wasn’t good enough to negate his unremarkable shooting and non-existent playmaking (3.5 assists per 100 possessions). Grade: D