Before you get all mad at me for not including Lauri Markkanen’s eighteen rebounds in the title of this video, let me remind you that eighteen rebounds is not even Markkanen’s highest rebounding total this season. He got nineteen in a game once. So this isn’t even exciting. My heart rate is not elevated at all when thinking about Markkanen’s eighteen rebounds. It legitimately makes me more excited that he got zero assists because it means that there’s no risk of me failing to include an inexplicably sick pass that he might have made.
Markkanen’s 31 points is also one off a season high, but 31 points gets my heart pumping way more than eighteen rebounds. I don’t know if I have heart palpatations or what but I’m feeling a little bit light-headed right now. I’m going to power through this description and then maybe chug some energy drunks to make me feel better. That should work, right?
What I’m wondering right now is if a core of Markkanen-LaVine-Porter (with optional core members of Kris Dunn and Wendell Carter Jr.) is going to be making serious noise in the East as soon as next season. If the Bulls get a proven NBA coach and Garpax doesn’t (don’t?) mismanage their remaining assets, I could totally see it happening. The East sucks right now and those are all good young players who should only improve. And if that core fails to do damage in this weak conference, I’m blaming it on LaVine and permanently placing him in the “volume stats guy who will never win anything” category.