Chris Haynes
@ChrisBHaynes
·
4m
Bulls restricted free agent Lauri Markkanen tells Finnish journalist
@AJ_Sipila
he wants out of Chicago: “We have offers from several different teams. I want a fresh start to my NBA career somewhere else.”
If we went after him I'd want us to trade Timelord. Lauri is better suited to the 5 and really improved his shooting efficiency
That would be the most sensible thing, although we oughtn’t sign him to more in year 1 that Time Lord’s cap hold if we’re committed to cap space.
That said, I’d prefer Williams.
A sign and trade for Thompson makes the most sense to me (we would need the additional salary I would think). We start Horford and Markkanen together. Or Markannen and RWilliams I guess. Doesn't really matter to me which (Horford or Markkanen) is the PF. Both are kind of hybrid PF/C bigs.
But that’s not going to make sense to Chicago.
Chicago traded away Aminu and Young in the DeRozan deal and with this would lose Markkanen. Plus they lost Theis. They need some big depth. Thompson can provide that. Probably Thompson, GWilliams, and a future pick could get it there. I know Chicago has taken on a lot of money and is going to be hesitant to take on more but do they really want to pay a pouty Markkanen $9M when he doesn't want to be there? That is not good for anyone. Should be a deal here that can work for all.
What I find kind of funny is Chicago not wanting to pay Markkanen sizeable money because he failed to play the PF position at a good enough level to justify that money yet ... the idea here is for Boston to pay that money for Markkanen to play the exact same role he failed at in Chicago here in Boston.
Why would Markkanen be more successful as a PF in Boston than he was in Chicago?
What do you see him as a PF? Do you see him as a star talent? A third star behind Tatum and Jaylen? Or do you see him as a role player who has size and can shoot similar to Ryan Anderson? Markkanen showed he couldn't be the first (star) but was able to be the 2nd (role player) while with the Bulls.
What I am asking is, why should we expect more from Markkanen in Boston while playing the same role?
Markkanen has had a very strange trajectory. After putting up 19/9 as a starter in 2018/19, he has gone down to where this season, he was coming off the bench and appeared to be in some kind of a mental funk. He still managed 13/5 in 26 min which even as his worst year of his career, is still better than anything any PF has done on the Celtics in a while. Oh, and he shot 40% from 3 on almost 6 attempts.
Now I don't know exactly what happened between 2018 and 2021 but there was COVID and all that. SAS is known as a smart franchise and they reported to have offered him 3 years / $39 M. The structure that I proposed was essentially a 1 year deal while trading a couple of players that are not much help to us. I feel there is a decent chance that he can be a say 17 pts, 8 reb player and go up from there. A Porzingis type of player, given a new team and being inspired by Tatum and Brown. But even a worst case floor of say 14 pts and 6 rebs with 40% 3 pt shooting is an improvement over our current PF rotation. And best case is a 20/10 fringe all star at the PF position.
If he was to accept a contract structured the way I propose, there is not much risk for either party and plenty of upside for either party. If his goal is to play this year to reset his value, Boston would be a great opportunity. We have a glaring hole at PF and he would get to play with 2 young all stars. How could the situation be better for him?
Topic: NBA trade rumors/FA signings 2021 (Read 234835 times)