GETTING TO KNOW THE NEW BULLS: Lauri Markkanen
BIRTHDAY: May 22, 1997 (age 20)
HEIGHT/WEIGHT: 7’0”, 230 lb
CAREER THUS FAR: The Bulls and their fans have high hopes for Markkanen, the 7th overall pick in the 2017 Draft who came to the team as one of the centerpieces of the deal that sent Jimmy Butler to Minnesota. Markkanen made waves as a 7-foot sharpshooter in his one season collegially here in the states at Arizona, where he was named First-Team All Pac-12 as a freshman, but he really turned heads late this summer at the EuroBasket tournament. Representing his home country of Finland, Markkanen was a force in the tournament, averaging a team-leading 19.5 points (7th in the tournament) and 5.7 rebounds on 53% shooting (including 48% from downtown). Markkanen gave his team a scoring punch it had lacked in recent years, as they qualified for the knockout round of the tournament for the first time in their history before falling to Italy.
FUN FACT: Both of Markkanen’s parents were professional basketball players, and his father Pekka played over 120 games for the Finland national team himself.