Lauri Markkanen is returning, here’s who it will affect the most

POOL PHOTOS-USA TODAY Sports Lauri Markkanen returned to practice Tuesday after doing hard time in the NBA contact tracing protocol.

Prior to his calf injury that held him out even before the health protocol absences, a case could be made that Lauri Markkanen was playing like the Bulls best player. But a funny thing happened while he, along with Tomas Satoransky, Ryan Arcidiacono and Chandler Hutchison, were away. The Bulls played better.

Was this simply the game by game, day by day improvement of a real head coach correcting mistakes and teaching? Or something related to these specific players and their responsibilities?

Their replacements did well, too be sure. Garrett Temple largely…