If you consider free throws to be a type of jumper, and you should, because there isn’t anyone I see in the league trying to lay up their foul shots, then all 25 of Lauri Markkanen’s points against the Magic were scored by way of the jumpshot. Note that I’m counting his first two running floatery things as jumpers as well. They weren’t textbook catch-and-shoots or anything, but they both had the SPIRIT of a jumper even if the execution was a little funky.
If I’m the Bulls, this is what I want to see. No one is impressed when a big catches it by the rim and dunks. Any bigman can do that except for Cristiano Felicio (neither the catching nor the dunking part). Post moves and stuff are a little more impressive, but that runs into a different problem of post play being totally obsoleted by the obsession with efficiency. But when you have a guy who can get a whole quarter of Wilt’s 100 just by standing on the outside and bombing shots, and that guy is also 7 feet tall, that’s value. That’s what will propel your team into the future.
That said, it would be nice if Robin Lopez could give up some of his interior touches so that Markkanen can score 30 on a more regular basis. Markkanen’s field goal percentage is suffering a little bit for all the outside shots he’s taking, and just a few easy dunks would make him a for-sure All-Star as soon as next year. And while Lopez is feeling charitable, maybe he could teach the Finnisher some more finishing moves? Like the skyhook that he uses sometimes. Markkanen playing like Dirk is great, but if he could also play like Kareem, that would be even greater.