Of course.
After 14 games played – seven missed due to the NBA’s Health and Safety Protocols – Lauri Markkanen will hit the injury report for up to four weeks due to a shoulder injury. The Bulls third-year player suffered the sprain in the team’s first matchup against the Orlando Magic and thus was restricted to only 17 minutes of action. When the team returned to Chicago, they took an MRI of his shoulder, which helped confirm that Markkanen would see an extended absence.
Markkanen was averaging 19.1 points and 6.1 rebounds on 51.4 percent shooting from the field and 39.6 percent from downtown.
Injury Update: Lauri Markkanen is expected to miss 2-4 weeks after an MRI confirmed his original diagnosis of a sprained right acromioclavicular joint.
— Chicago Bulls (@chicagobulls) February 8, 2021
This is the play Markkanen was injured on. More details here ➡️ https://t.co/4gbpVi7PVU https://t.co/J13zPLldP3
— Darnell Mayberry (@DarnellMayberry) February 8, 2021
Markkanen will now join Wendell Carter Jr. on the injury report for the next several weeks, eliminating the entirety of the Bulls starting frontcourt. Obviously, this brings up significant on-court issues, but I’m more concerned about the behind-the-scenes impact. The Bulls’ new front office will now have one less month to evaluate two of the team’s young starters. Each player’s inability to stay healthy could play its own important part in the evaluation process, but there is no question that seeing their in-game progression is the only true way to form a comfortable consensus.
For Markkanen specifically, this absence will put the Bulls front office in an even more uneasy state as the fourth-year big man is headed toward restricted free agency this offseason. The team has to decide whether or not to let him walk or match a potential offer sheet that comes his way. Being in a position of power is certainly comforting, but the last thing they want to do is give up completely on Markkanen because of some early-career injury trouble. After all, we saw some big improvements in his game to start this season.
Anyway, life sucks. Here is a disgusting tweet. I’m going to go cry.
Games played:
Markkanen
Year 1: 68 of 82
Year 2: 52 of 82
Year 3: 50 of 65
Year 4: 14 of 29 (if out 2 weeks)Carter
Year 1: 44 of 82
Year 2: 43 of 65
Year 3: 14 of 32 (minimum before re-evaluation)Deleted earlier Tweet which had wrong number of games in Carter's 2nd season
— K.C. Johnson (@KCJHoop) February 8, 2021