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BN Chicago Bulls Lauri Markkanen and Jimmy Butler....

Lauri Markkanen and Jimmy Butler Rubbed Salt in the Wound (and Other Bulls Bullets)

Elias Schuster Elias Schuster
Apr 25, 2023
Chicago Bulls
Jimmy Butler for FanDuel North Carolina promo 3.10

Let me preface what I’m about to say with this: Everything feels worse when you’re losing. Likewise, hindsight is always 20/20, and there is always very little use in complaining about the past.

With that said … it’s time to complain about the past!

  • The Chicago Bulls season officially ended on April 14, but they picked up another loss on Monday night. Two years ago the Bulls’ new front office decided to move on from Lauri Markkanen. The organization sent him to the Cleveland Cavaliers in a three-team deal that netted them Derrick Jones Jr. and a lottery-protected first-rounder from Portland that has yet to convey. After a decent season with Cleveland, Markkanen was included in a trade for Utah Jazz All-Star Donovan Mitchell. And he’s now the 2022-23 NBA Most Improved Player.

    • Former Bull Lauri Markkanen is Your 2022-23 Most Improved Player

  • Now, to be absolutely clear, this doesn’t bother me much. I’m actually happy for Markkanen and mostly believe this version of him would have never arrived in Chicago. I mean, let’s not forget that he also struggled to look like anything more than a 3-point specialist when playing one season in Cleveland. Sometimes a big change of scenery is necessary, and the path Markkanen has taken to become an All-Star is likely the one he needed to take.

  • At the same time, I’d be lying if I said I don’t feel a tad bitter. The new front office had an opportunity to evaluate the young talent on the Bulls’ roster, and they decided that a future with Markkanen wasn’t worthwhile. We saw a similar decision made with Wendell Carter Jr., who has turned into a solid starter for the Orlando Magic. Again, I think these two likely needed a wake-up call to find their place in the league, but did the front office know that or did they simply not see the potential that rested within? If it’s the latter, that’s obviously concerning.

  • The last thing I’ll say about Markkanen is this: We’ll see where his career goes. The fact that he’s still just 25 years old is undoubtedly a positive. In NBA terms, he hasn’t even hit his athletic prime yet, so there is a real shot that he could become a multi-time All-Star and a strong piece to a winning puzzle. But the Jazz also fell out of the playoff picture and we’ve seen outlier seasons before. So while I wish the best for Markkanen, I’m just going to have to see him do this again to believe he’s a fully transformed player.

  • But, wait, that isn’t the only gut-punch Bulls fans got last night! Only a couple of hours after Markkanen earned his award, Jimmy Butler capped off a legendary playoff performance. The former Bull scored 56 points – tying the 4th-highest total in playoff history – to take a 3-1 lead over the No. 1 seeded Milwaukee Bucks.

    • Historic Jimmy Butler Performance Gives Heat 3-1 Lead Over Bucks

  • Butler was downright unstoppable. He shot 19-28 from the floor and went 15-18 at the free-throw line. He scored 21 points in the 4th quarter, including his own personal 9-0 run to give the Heat the lead that would ultimately win them the game. As I watched him make every clutch play imaginable and scream “THIS IS MY SH*T” into the crowd with his whole chest, it was hard not to play the “what if” game.

  • I don’t want to re-hash the Butler trade anymore, especially considering it was over five seasons ago. But the guy makes it so damn hard not to! What if the Bulls simply invested in their home-grown talent and didn’t act like a cheap franchise? I know the situation wasn’t as cut-and-dry as giving up on Butler, but you make things work when a superstar is on your team. The Bulls’ failure to do that could have truly been the difference between being a Finals contender the past half-decade and being one of the worst four teams in the NBA.

  • And, look, I know it’s more complicated than that. Keeping Butler likely means keeping the front office, and we all know that the front office wasn’t capable of building a true winner. Everything is connected. Still, that just makes me mad all over again about the incompetence of the previous regime. Butler always felt like a perfect Bull, and it stinks that we didn’t get to see him reach the peaks of his career in a Bulls jersey.

  • All of these recent bullets have been so dang depressing. Here’s a Michael Jordan mixtape to help cleanse the palate a little!

  • MTV Cribs but Bulls …

  • BYE-BYE, RODGERS!

    • More Rodgers Fallout, Draft Prices, Finding Peace, and Other Bears Bullets

  • You love a good implosion!

    • Why Tampa’s Implosion Last Night is Important to the Blackhawks

    Read More

    written by

    Elias Schuster

    Elias Schuster is the Lead Chicago Bulls writer at Bleacher Nation. He started with BN full-time in 2019 immediately after graduating from the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign with a degree in Journalism (yes, he started with the Jim Boylen Era). Since joining, Elias has been the driving force behind Bulls and NBA content for both the site and social accounts. You can follow him on Twitter/X @Schuster_Elias.

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