Big man Lauri Markkanen has been publicly forthcoming in expressing his belief that he can be better utilized in the team's offense, and there's more to his line of thinking behind the scenes, Joe Cowley of the Sun-Times said on the Bernstein & McKnight show on Thursday morning.
It has to do with the future of the 22-year-old Markkanen, whom the Bulls selected No. 7 overall in the 2017 draft. Markkanen wants to see the team enact change for the better or he could leave at his first opportunity.
"The internal culture is not good," Cowley said. "If everything stands as it is right now, I'm telling you this right now, Lauri Markkanen doesn't want to stay here, doesn't want to play here, doesn't want to play with this structure that he has right now. So he's gone. If they don't want to make any moves, he's gone. When he can go, he's going to go. And that was one of your foundation pieces. So you're flawed there."
Markkanen is under contract control through the 2020-'21 season, after which the Bulls would have matching rights in restricted free agency. He's also eligible for a long-term extension this offseason.
Markkanen has struggled this season, posting career-worst marks of 15.0 points, 6.5 rebounds, 42.4% shooting overall and 34.3% 3-point shooting. He has often been relegated to being a perimeter-bound spot-up shooter at the expense of getting opportunities closer to the hoop in coach Jim Boylen's offensive system.
The Bulls' expectation was that a leap forward from Markkanen and guard Zach LaVine would propel them to a much-improved season and playoff berth, but they're not on track for that.
"Here's the gamble with the way they set this up," Cowley said. "They said, 'OK, this is what we're going to do. We got all these young guys on the verge of something strong to make a playoff run -- whether it's the five, six, seven or eight (seed). They knew they wouldn't get higher than that, but the hope was seven or eight and you jump into the playoffs this year. And then everything was signed for that two-year window. The way you look (at the contracts) of Thad (Young) and (Tomas) Satoransky, everything was for two years -- this year and next year. Everything was based on the summer of 2021, and the hope was you build this nice attic and this nice crawl space and you hope that the two foundation pieces are enough to attract the big-ticket item in '21. Well guess what? It's three months up this two-year plan, it's already out the window. Zach (LaVine) has kind of reached his ceiling. We all know what Zach is. He's on the verge of being an All-Star. You could argue he's right on that cusp. But the other foundation piece, Lauri Markkanen, the two have shown that they can't play together. You got Lauri not really wanting to stay here and really not looking forward to being a foundation piece.
"He hasn't said anything like that publicly, but you just hear things. If you talk to the right people, you kind of hear what's going on.
Cowley believes the Bulls have to alter their approach as soon as they can.
"The plan is done," he said. "It's already a failure. So you have to pivot."