Bulls’ latest win shouldn’t cover up the Lauri Markkanen problem

For the third time this season, the Bulls big man was on the bench in a fourth-quarter crunch-time moment — the same big man that the Bulls have built this rebuild around.

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This is the regression of Lauri Markkanen: three points, 1-for-9 shooting from the field, the only starter not on the positive side for plus-minus, a benchwarmer while Zach LaVine was coming up huge in the final seconds Saturday against the Hornets.

So this is the other young stalwart the Bulls are counting on in Year 3 of the rebuild?

“Well, I didn’t think Lauri played poorly,’’ coach Jim Boylen said after the Bulls’ improbable 116-115 comeback victory. “He did not shoot the ball how we know he can shoot it. I did not think he played poorly. Just like Zach, just like Coby [White], just like [Kris Dunn], just like [Ryan Arcidiacono], just like everybody, Wendell [Carter], I’m going to keep coaching and my staff is going to keep coaching. Just try to keep leading these guys in the right direction. We’re going to keep looking at it.’’

That’s fine.

But besides the mention of LaVine, Markkanen is not supposed to be compared to the Whites and Dunns.

He’s supposed to be special, a 7-foot unicorn who can score from anywhere on the floor, grab double-digit rebounds and is versatile enough to bring the ball the length of the court and attack the rim.

For the third game this season, however, Markkanen was basically useless when it mattered most.

In the Bulls’ 47-point fourth quarter, he played 1:13. Boylen got Markkanen up to the scorer’s table and was set to put him back in, but LaVine was putting on a scoring clinic, and Arcidiacono, White and Tomas Satoransky were all playing solid complementary roles.

“I had Lauri at the table, and then we had a timeout, and we just made a three,’’ Boylen said. “I just didn’t think [putting Markkanen] in was the right thing to do. Lauri didn’t do anything wrong. It wasn’t an issue. That group was rolling. I’ve kind of done this before, and you go with your gut, go with a feel, and I thought, you know, we were kind of giving up some twos in the post, but because of our small lineup, we were getting threes on the other end.

“So we were trading twos for threes, kind of hanging around, hanging around, and we kept doing it, caught a couple of breaks in the end.’’

So the 24-point game Wednesday against the Pistons apparently wasn’t the jump start that Markkanen was hoping for.

An even bigger concern is that LaVine and Markkanen are revealing an inability to play off each other, and the problem goes back to last season. No one can explain why, including Markkanen.

“It’s pretty easy to play with [LaVine],’’ Markkanen said. “We just have to do it more consistently.’’

The victory against the Hornets amounts to a couple of ice cubes thrown on a season that has been more a dumpster fire of dysfunction than a promising rebuild. If LaVine and Markkanen can’t figure it out, one of them might have to go. That’s why rumors of a possible Markkanen trade have cropped up even though a source in the organization adamantly shot down those whispers.

Either way, one of the players the Bulls have built their roster around has to be more than a warmup model on the bench during crunch time. Markkanen can’t become just another guy on the roster.

“Yeah, I understand, I understand, and I do think he is special, and I’m going to keep coaching him that way,’’ Boylen said. “I’m confident he’ll respond.’’

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